Let Them Eat Cake...

Well if you don't know who i'm basing my project on from the title of this post then you have been living under a rock....

yes it is Marie Antoinette - the queen of excess, the queen of fashion, the queen of decadence, elegance, opulance, innocence....Innocence i hear you all repeat to yourself.
Yes - was this women really a political pawn or was she just a damsel in distress?



There are many things about Marie Antoinette that majorly get my creative juices flowing...Her decadent Petit Trianon - first given to Madame de Pompadour then Madame du Barry ( all royal mistresses respectfully )
This was hers to do with whatever she wanted - which caused a lot of controversy at court - a 19yr old queen having not only her own quarters but her own house and subsequent areas. It is rumoured that even her husband King Louis XVI could only enter with invitation.



On first arrival at Versaille she refused to wear her very restricting Whalebone Corset, it was only with strong persuasion that she wore it again due to small talk and gossip with the court about her behaviours.
She wasn't one for Court etiquette and would avoid it like the plague resulting in frequent stays at the petit trianon and eventually the Hameau De La Reine which was a rustic retreat built especially for Marie Antoinette.

Here, it was said, the Queen and her attendants would dress as sherperdesses and milkmaids. Particularly docile, hand-picked cows would be cleaned. These cows would be milked by the ladies, with porcelain milk churns painted to imitate wood specially made by the royal porcelain manufactory at Sévres.
This is what interests me the most about Marie Antoinette - her constant wanting to escape, to have freedom, to dress as a milkmaid or sheprdess, no restraints.
This is where my main inspiration will start - i want to design something that could be worn by the most elegant, richest whatever person but i want it to be understated beauty - simple and elegant.