V&A to host Marie Antoinette fashion exhibition

The UK's first ever exhibition dedicated to the life of French queen Marie Antoinette is to open at V&A South Kensington in London.

Marie Antoinette Style, which opens in September, will feature 250 objects including clothing and decorative arts, with some loaned from France's Chateau De Versailles.

The Austrian archduchess-turned last queen of France had "an enormous impact on European taste and fashion in her own time", the exhibition's curator Sarah Grant said.

"She was the most fashionable, scrutinised and controversial queen in history."

The exhibition will feature richly embellished fragments of court dress, the queen's own silk slippers, and jewels from her private collection.

There will also be a number of items which have never left France before, such as the queen's dinner service from the Petit Trianon, her accessories and items from her toilette case.

"This exhibition explores that style and the figure at its centre, using a range of exquisite objects belonging to Marie Antoinette, alongside the most beautiful fine and decorative objects that her legacy has inspired," Ms Grant said.

"This is the design legacy of an early modern celebrity and the story of a woman whose power to fascinate has never ebbed. Marie Antoinette's story has been re-told and re-purposed by each successive generation to suit its own ends."

"The rare combination of glamour, spectacle and tragedy she presents remains as intoxicating today as it was in the 18th century."

Marie Antoinette Style will look at Antoinette's origins and impact on style from her own time to the present day through audio visual installations and "immersive" curation.

A scent experience will re-create the smells of the court, and the perfume she favoured.

The exhibition will also feature contemporary clothing including pieces by designers such as Moschino, Dior, Chanel, Erdem, Vivienne Westwood and Valentino - and costumes from Sofia Coppola's Oscar-winning Marie Antoinette staring Kirsten Dunst.

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