Marie Antoinette style

 

Yesterday I watched the final of Project Runway Australia and despite my recent obsession wth bright bold colours, was very inspired by Dylan & Johnny's pastel palettes. The soft lavenders, cupcake pinks and mint greens reminded me of Ladree Macarons and Dion Lee's show at Fashion week last year). Then the 3rd finalist Johny explained that his collection of scarlet reds and shattered mirrors was inspired by Marie Antoinette's end, when Versailles was trashed and she was beheaded.

Johnny Shembri

 Craig Braybook

Dylan Cooper 

Naturally, I had to watch Sofia Coppola's Marie Antoinette immediately. I can't believe it took me so long to watch this amazing film. 

 

It is beautifully shot and the sets and costumes are so decadent, set to a rockin Indie soundtrack. Marie (Kirsten Dunst) and her cohorts traipse about Versailles, swilling champagne and popping petit fours into their rouged mouths. As lower classes worked outdoors causing tanned skin, complexions had to be pale and were painted with noxious white lead called ceruse mixed with egg-white. Veins were even traced with blue powder to encourage a translucent look. Lips and cheeks were stained in red ochre. Black silk or felt was used to make beauty spots, initially to hide small pox scars but later grew in popularity, and in size! Hair and wigs were powdered, mainly to absorb oil but gave wigs an ethereal candy-floss type look. Finely ground flour was used and sometimes coloured blue, grey, pink or red.

Married off to frigid man at 15, Marie grows increasingly bored of being a bird in a gilded cage, where she is not expected to so much as lift a finger as rigid protocol dictates her life. She is dressed and told what to wear. She is given the cold shoulder by her hubby, leaving her curled up in her huge satin swathed 4 poster alone. 

 

As boredom ensued, she amused herself by indulging in copious amounts of champagne, decadant food and gambling. One gambling session (during her 21st birthday celebrations) went for 3 days straight.

 

Her clothes were housed in 3 rooms. She tried to create some semblance of control over her life by immersing herself in fashion, designing custom luxurious silk gowns adorned in tassles & ribbons, feathers & bows and accompanying the look with increasingly intricate towering pouf hairstyles. 

In 1775, Queen Maria Theresa of Austria-Hungary wrote to her daughter Marie-Antoinette: “I cannot help but touch upon a point that many of the papers repeat to me too often: it is the hairstyle that you wear. They say that from the roots it measures 36 pouces high and with all the feathers and ribbons that hold all of that up! You know that I have always been of the opinion that one should follow fashion moderately, but never carry it to excess. A pretty young queen full of charms has no need of all these follies. Quite the contrary. A simple hairstyle suits her better and is more appropriate for a queen. She must set the tone, and everyone will hurry to follow even your smallest errors…". Marie-Antoinette responded, “It is true that I am a bit occupied by my hairstyle, and as for the feathers, everyone wears them, and it would look extraordinarily out of place not to”

"These intricate forms of dress were designed to showcase the power (and unfortunately for them later, the wealth) of the French monarchy...through her dress, Marie Antoinette “identified fashion as a key weapon in her struggle for personal prestige, authority, and sometimes mere survival." Source. These Marie Antoinette inspired shots by Annie Leibowitz (including Kristen Dunst and Drew Barrymore) are gorgeous.

 

Galliano has long been inspired by the French Revolution, resulting in some stunningly opulent gowns, as below.

This Marie Anotinette inspired soot by Wildfox is particularly cute. Love the macaron coloured hair...

 

I also love these shoots by Ellen Von Unwerth, starring a young Rosie-Huntington Whitely.

 

More Marie Antoinette shoots I love follow...here is Kristen McMenamy in a shoot from November 2010 for Vogue Italia by Paolo Roversi.

 

More editorials...

Emily Blunt for Vanity Fair 2009

Vanessa Paradis by Karl Lagerfeld at Versailles for Tatler Russia, July 20

Stella Tennant for Paolo Roversi, Vogue Italia March 2011

15 Facts about Elizabeth Taylor

I love Elizabeth Taylor. As a child I was bewitched by her performance in National Velvet. My Mum told me she was "the most beautiful woman in the world". Indeed, one thing that keeps being mentioned during all the press following her death is that she had a beauty that stopped people men and women, in their tracks, rendered breathless.

The other thing people say is that she had a fantastic, bawdy sense of humour. Not only was she stunning and funny, but she was strong and a tireless advocate for her friends and AIDs research. In a recent interview, she said that she wanted to be remembered for her strength. I'm sure this will be the case.

Here are 15 facts you may or may not know about the fabulous Elizabeth Taylor.

1. She was a talented hair stylist who cut friend’s hair, and her own when her stylist was unavailable

2. She converted to Judaism in 1959, before marrying Eddie Fisher

3. She hated being called Liz, because it sounded like a hiss

4. She was married 8 times, to Richard Burton twice

5. Her first husband was Conrad ‘Nicky’ Hilton Jr, Grand Uncle of Paris (whose father was immortalised on Mad Men Seasons 3 and 4.) They divorced after 9 months.

6. She was one of the first celebrities to advocate AIDs research when it was still a much feared disease, after her friend Rock Hudson died in 1985 (she founded the Elizabeth Taylor HIV/AIDS Foundation in 1991). She has raised over $100 million for AIDs research.

7. She really did have violet eyes, and a genetic mutation meant she had a double set of eyelashes

8. In the 1980s Schering-Plough developed violet contact lenses inspired by her

9. She loved Twitter and started an account in 2010, as @DameElizabeth. She Tweeted on 23th July, 2011: "Hold your horses world. I've been hearing all kinds of rumours about someone being cast to play me in a film about Richard and myself", followed by "No one is going to play Elizabeth Taylor, but Elizabeth Taylor herself."

10. She wore perfume very day

11. She was great friends with Michael Jackson and Godmother to his children Paris and Prince Michael

12. She and Michael bonded over their lack of a childhood, and would often don disguises and go to the movies together

13. She was the voice of cartoon Maggie Simpson’s first world

14. Her perfumes “Passion", "White Diamonds", and "Black Pearls" earn an estimated US$200 million in annual sales. Her next perfume, “Violet Eyes” had its name chosen by her Twitter followers

15. She owned some of the moors expensive jewellery in the world , including the 33 carat Krupp diamond and the 69 carat pendant both given to her by Richard Burton

Elizabeth inspired countless women, stylists, designers and artists with her look and her style. Here are but a few.

Wheels & Dollbaby, inspired by Elizabeth's hour-glass, traffic stopping curves!

Alexander McQueen's MAC range, inspired by Elizabeth in Cleopatra

I love this shoot by Ellen Von Unwerth, inspired by Elizabeth Taylor and Cleopatra



Rest in Peace Elizabeth

1932 - 2011