V&A to Stage Britain’s First Marie Antoinette Exhibition: From Versailles Secrets to Sofia Coppola Glamour

The V&A will unveil Britain’s first major exhibition dedicated to history’s most fashion-forward queen, featuring never-before-seen treasures from Versailles and her final written words.

London’s Victoria and Albert Museum is preparing to open its most glamorous exhibition yet, as “Marie Antoinette Style” promises to bring the opulence and intrigue of 18th-century Versailles to South Kensington. Running from September 20, 2025, through March 22, 2026, this groundbreaking exhibition marks the first time the UK has dedicated a major show to the Austrian-born French queen whose style continues to captivate the world more than two centuries after her death.

Treasures Never Before Seen Outside France

The exhibition’s crown jewel lies in its unprecedented access to Marie Antoinette’s personal possessions. For the first time, exceptional loans from the Château de Versailles will cross the English Channel, including intimate items that have never left French soil. Visitors will encounter the queen’s own silk slippers, jewels from her private collection, and perhaps most poignantly, the final note she wrote before her execution in 1793 – penned on a blank page in her prayer book.

Among the most fascinating artifacts is a replica of the infamous Boehmer and Bassenge diamond necklace from the scandal of 1784-85. The original, initially commissioned for Madame du Barry, was famously stolen, broken apart, and sold on London’s Bond Street – a theft that contributed to the queen’s downfall. The V&A will display this replica alongside the Sutherland diamond necklace from their own collection, believed to contain diamonds from the original piece.

A Queen’s Private World Revealed

The exhibition offers an unprecedented glimpse into Marie Antoinette’s daily life through her most personal possessions. Her dinner service from the Petit Trianon – her beloved private retreat at Versailles – will be displayed alongside accessories and intimate items from her toilette case. These objects reveal a woman who, despite her public image of excess, had refined taste and genuine appreciation for beautiful craftsmanship.

Perhaps most intriguingly, the exhibition includes one of four surviving “jatte téton” or “breast cups” from the queen’s Sèvres Rambouillet dairy service. This porcelain piece has sparked the persistent but erroneous legend that it was modeled on the queen’s own breast – a myth that has inspired modern interpretations and continues to fuel fascination with her story.

From 18th Century Court to 21st Century Couture

“Marie Antoinette Style” brilliantly traces the queen’s enduring influence on fashion and design across 250 years. The exhibition’s four chronological sections demonstrate how her aesthetic has been continuously reinterpreted by successive generations, each finding new meaning in her combination of luxury, tragedy, and style.

Contemporary fashion takes center stage alongside historical artifacts, with couture pieces by Moschino, Dior, Chanel, Erdem, Vivienne Westwood, and Valentino illustrating Marie Antoinette’s ongoing impact on modern design. The exhibition sponsor, legendary shoe designer Manolo Blahnik, contributes pieces including the stunning footwear he created for Sofia Coppola’s Academy Award-winning 2006 film “Marie Antoinette.”

The Birth of Celebrity Culture

Curator Sarah Grant positions Marie Antoinette as “an early modern celebrity,” whose story has been “re-told and re-purposed by each successive generation to suit its own ends.” This perspective transforms the exhibition from a simple historical display into an exploration of how celebrity, style, and scandal have evolved from the 18th century to our Instagram age.

The exhibition examines the “let them eat cake” mythology that still surrounds the queen, drawing on recent research about early modern women, queenship, and celebrity culture. Rather than perpetuating myths, the V&A seeks to present a more nuanced view of a complex figure whose youth, style, and tragic fate have made her an enduring source of fascination.

Immersive Royal Experience

Beyond traditional museum displays, “Marie Antoinette Style” promises a multisensory experience that brings the queen’s world to life. Theatrical staging and immersive curation will recreate the atmosphere of Versailles, while a specially designed scent experience will reproduce the perfumes favored by the queen and the fragrances of her court.

The exhibition’s visual feast includes luminous watercolor illustrations by Golden Age artists Erté, George Barbier, and Edmund Dulac, alongside photographs by contemporary masters Tim Walker and Robert Polidori. These images demonstrate how Marie Antoinette’s aesthetic has influenced not just fashion but photography, film, and visual arts across centuries.

Four Chapters of Style Evolution

The exhibition’s chronological structure tells a compelling story of cultural transmission:

“Marie Antoinette: The Origins of a Style” (1770-1793) explores how the young Austrian archduchess transformed French court fashion and created a distinctive aesthetic that blended formality with surprising informality.

“Marie Antoinette Memorialised: The Birth of a Style Cult” (1800-1890) examines the 19th-century revival led by Empress Eugénie, when romanticized visions of the queen became the dominant “French Revival” style in Britain and North America.

“Marie Antoinette: Enchantment and Illusion” (Late 19th Century) traces how the queen’s image evolved into pure fantasy during the Art Nouveau and Art Deco periods, embodying escapism and beauty as much as decadence.

“Marie Antoinette Re-Styled” (20th Century-Present) demonstrates her continued influence on contemporary fashion, performance, and pop culture, from couture runways to music videos.

A London Cultural Event

For London’s cultural calendar, “Marie Antoinette Style” represents a major coup – bringing together international loans that would typically be impossible to see in one location. The exhibition’s placement at the V&A, with its unparalleled collections of decorative arts and fashion, creates the perfect setting for exploring how style transcends historical periods.

The timing feels particularly apt, as contemporary fashion increasingly draws inspiration from historical periods while social media has created new forms of celebrity that echo the scrutiny Marie Antoinette faced. In our age of instant global communication and image-obsessed culture, her story resonates with fresh relevance.

Planning Your Visit

Tickets for “Marie Antoinette Style” are now available through the V&A website, with the exhibition running for six months in Galleries 38 & 39 at V&A South Kensington. Given the unprecedented nature of the loans and the exhibition’s comprehensive scope, advance booking is strongly recommended.

For London residents and visitors alike, this represents a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to encounter Marie Antoinette’s actual possessions while exploring how her legacy continues to shape contemporary culture. The exhibition promises to be both a stunning visual spectacle and a thoughtful examination of how historical figures become cultural icons.

As Sarah Grant notes, “The rare combination of glamour, spectacle and tragedy she presents remains as intoxicating today as it was in the eighteenth century.” For London audiences, “Marie Antoinette Style” offers the chance to experience that intoxication firsthand while gaining new understanding of fashion, celebrity, and the enduring power of style to capture imaginations across centuries.

Marie Antoinette Style runs September 20, 2025 – March 22, 2026 at V&A South Kensington. Tickets available at vam.ac.uk/exhibitions/marie-antoinette