PROFILE
Birth Title: Maria Antonia Josepha Joanna Habsburg-Lorraine, Archduchess of Austria
Married Title: Marie Antoinette Bourbon, Queen of France and Navarre
Literally, the Queen of Fashion of her time, Marie Antoinette of France was actually born in Austria. One of nine, she was brought up under different governesses, yet was never quite out of the range of her busy mother. That mother was in a quest to marry off her children to royals from other countries, to expand her empire.
As a child Maria suffered the death of her father, followed by the loss of her sister, and niece, and governess. Her favorite sister was sent away to marry the King of Naples, while another sister suffered smallpox and hid away in a veil to eventually become a nun. It was a sad childhood
At fourteen she was betrothed to the Dauphin Louis Auguste of France, and moved to the palace of Versailles. Here her life was transformed into a cascade of balls, limitless money (so it would seem) and gambling. Drugs came into this story too, as did passionate affairs. Simply put, it was an 18th century Gossip Girl
Marie Antoinette is probably most famous for her saying "Let them eat cake" which she never actually said, and her huge spending sprees, but her was her clothes that really annoyed the common French people. wigs so high you had to duck under doors, skirts so wide you had to turn at doorways, powdered faces, lace fans, whalebone cosets and garish shoes and the result is a 1700's french aristocrat. It was probably her rash spending that wrought her downfall, but Marie Antoinette was an intelligent and complex woman nonetheless.
For now, lets just contemplate some of her jaw-dropping outfits. Some of these are provided by the 2006 film with Kirsten Dunst
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