Monday Muse: Marie Antoinette Inspires Marchesa Resort 2014

Sofia Coppola's Marie Antoinette

Sofia Coppola’s Marie Antoinette

Few film directors influence the fashion world the way Sofia Coppola does. Not only is she BFFs with some of fashion’s biggest names (her friendship to Marc Jacobs even led to a capsule collection at Louis Vuitton), her movies are filled with the stuff that fashion dreams are made of. Before The Bling Ring splashed modern day must-haves (Balmain, Balenciaga, Chanel, Christian Louboutin and more) across TMZ headlines, Coppola directed a biopic of the original fashion plate: Marie Antoinette. Coppola muse Kirsten Dunst — who made a brief cameo in The Bling Ring — played the fashion-obsessed queen to perfection, from the larger-than-life hair down to the buckled shoes. Whether it was the film that had a big impact on Marchesa designers Karen Craig and Georgina Chapman, who cited Marie Antoinette herself as inspiration for their Resort 2014 collection, or the actual Antoinette, we spied picture perfect frocks for Dunst’s doomed doyenne in the designing duo’s latest runway outing.

Kirsten Dunst in Sofia Coppola's Marie Antoinette

Kirsten Dunst in Sofia Coppola’s Marie Antoinette

The real Marie Antoinette was known for her Petit Trianon, an adult playhouse that let her play-act the life of French peasants, as much as her fashion sense, which included sky-hair hairpieces, intricate hats and embellishment that still influences couture houses today. Excess was the name of the game, whether that meant ruffles on ruffles or piles of pearls. She lived an extravagant lifestyle while the French population starved and cried out for revolution. Coppola’s film depicted the teenaged queen attending lavish balls, feasting on Ladurée macarons and prancing about Versaille in dresses that earned the film an Academy Award for costume design. Though the French Revolution brought her revelry to an abrupt end, her lifestyle lived on in the mind of the upper crust, who still bring her ideals of more is more to life every day every time they pop open a bottle of Veuve Cliquot. Antoinette herself was known as La Veuve after her husband’s execution.

Marchesa Resort 2014

Marchesa Resort 2014

Marchesa Resort 2014

Marchesa Resort 2014

Though both the actual Marie Antoinette and Coppola’s depiction of her were rife with angst and sadness, Marchesa designers Karen Craig and Georgina Chapman chose instead to focus their collection for Resort 2014 on the happier times at Versaille. Prints were pulled straight from the Petit Trianon and the palace itself, lending soft blues and golds to short gowns and an ethereal (an adjective oft used to describe Coppola’s work as well) floral print looked princess-ready in both a tea-length dress and its floor-sweeping evening equivalent. The handpainted floral prints were accompanied by bare white dresses with only touches of embellishment — an ode to the post-revolution imprisoned Antoinette, perhaps? — as well as light-as air confections that seemed so frothy and sweet that they could have come from a collab with Ladurée.

There was not a trouser in sight, which is a trademark of both Marie Antoinette and Marchesa, but the most fitting dress for a doomed princess would have to be the robin’s egg blue wedding gown that ended the presentation. There’s no better way to turn tradition on its ear than to eschew pure white for a wedding, and both Marchesa and Antoinette defy convention whether it’s with revolution or red carpet dressing.

Images courtesy Harpers Bazaar and OutNow.

 

 

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Author:Fashion Trends Daily Staff

Fashion Trends Daily Editors deliver the scoop on fashion, beauty, celebrity and runway trends.