Marie Antoinette was a true style icon of her time. When she became queen in 1774, she adopted the French nation's passion for fashion.
At Versailles, Marie Antoinette devoted time, attention, and considerable expense to planning her wardrobe and hairstyles, as well as to the parties where she demonstrated her outfits. She commissioned up to 300 dresses a year, and was known to never wear anything twice. Her passion for clothing, decoration and interiors, as well as a seemingly limitless budget, allowed her to create masterpieces that left a significant mark on fashion history and continue to inspire designers to this day.
Marie-Antoinette is often called the first consumer of couture items. Unique items were designed and made for her by her "fashion minister", Rose Bertin. Together they made fashion and clothing not just a craft, but an art. The royal outfits have always fascinated the public and everyone was looking forward to the queen's next appearance.
She also started the fashion for high and overly decorated hairstyles called "poufs". Their appearance often depended on cultural events or the political significance of the day. They contained appropriate emblems interwoven into the hair design, often with drawings and written text or motifs. Extravagant hairstyles were decorated with flowers, feathers, artificial birds, pearls, lace, diamonds, boats, and other similar toys.
Tying up hair, powdering it, and then making it huge and majestic with expensive wigs was all the rage, and big hair became a symbol of status and, ultimately, style. Also, thanks to Marie Antoinette, people began to dye their hair in pastel shades. It was very fashionable among royalty and aristocrats to dye or powder their hair to give it an unusual color. "Strawberry blonde was the most popular tone.
Marie Antoinette helped to keep Paris the capital of European fashion. Unfortunately, Marie Antoinette's luxurious wardrobe only created an image of a frivolous spender for her, which was one of the main reasons why she was despised by the French. This antipathy eventually led the country to the destruction of the monarchy and the queen to the guillotine in 1793.