0:00:00 > 0:00:04Clothes are the ultimate form of visual communication.
0:00:04 > 0:00:06By looking at the way people dressed,
0:00:06 > 0:00:08we can learn not only about them as individuals,
0:00:08 > 0:00:10but about the society they lived in.
0:00:11 > 0:00:14I'm Amber Butchart, fashion historian,
0:00:14 > 0:00:16and in the words of Louis XIV,
0:00:16 > 0:00:20I believe that fashion is the mirror of history.
0:00:21 > 0:00:24So taking historical works of art as our inspiration...
0:00:25 > 0:00:29..traditional tailor Ninya Mikhaila and her team will be recreating
0:00:29 > 0:00:33historical clothing, using only authentic methods.
0:00:33 > 0:00:36Oh, look at that! It's changing colour in the air.
0:00:36 > 0:00:39And I'll be finding out what they tell us
0:00:39 > 0:00:40about the people who wore them.
0:00:40 > 0:00:43I'm assuming the king wouldn't be dressing himself though, right?
0:00:43 > 0:00:45And the times they lived in.
0:00:47 > 0:00:49And seeing what they're like to wear.
0:01:01 > 0:01:05Marie Antoinette is seen as history's ultimate fashion icon,
0:01:05 > 0:01:08and its ultimate fashion victim.
0:01:08 > 0:01:11Her extravagant wardrobe is the stuff of legend,
0:01:11 > 0:01:14and yet not a single gown known to have been worn by her
0:01:14 > 0:01:15survives today.
0:01:20 > 0:01:24What we do have are portraits like this one painted in 1783
0:01:24 > 0:01:28by the Queen's favourite artist, Vigee Le Brun.
0:01:28 > 0:01:31And its story, and the story of the dress she wears in it,
0:01:31 > 0:01:34are as scandalous and as intriguing as the Queen herself.
0:01:37 > 0:01:40When this portrait was unveiled it caused huge damage to an already
0:01:40 > 0:01:44unpopular monarchy. It looks really informal for a court portrait,
0:01:44 > 0:01:47especially those of Marie Antoinette,
0:01:47 > 0:01:51who we associate with this very lavish, sumptuous clothing.
0:01:51 > 0:01:55So I'm really keen to unravel the story behind it.
0:01:55 > 0:01:58Now, fashion and dress took on a really ideological role
0:01:58 > 0:02:00during the fall of the French monarchy,
0:02:00 > 0:02:03so I really want to see what this portrait can tell us
0:02:03 > 0:02:06about this tumultuous period in history,
0:02:06 > 0:02:09and especially the place of Marie Antoinette within that.
0:02:11 > 0:02:15The chemise a la reine, as the gown worn in this portrait became known,
0:02:15 > 0:02:17was a radical departure for Marie Antoinette,
0:02:17 > 0:02:21and a complete contrast to the highly structured garments
0:02:21 > 0:02:23favoured by the rest of the court.
0:02:30 > 0:02:34I'm keen to find out from Ninya if the dress is as simple as it looks.
0:02:34 > 0:02:37So, Marie Antoinette, as a figure,
0:02:37 > 0:02:39still looms large in the history of fashion
0:02:39 > 0:02:41and in pop culture in general.
0:02:41 > 0:02:47But this portrait of her is a very different Marie Antoinette
0:02:47 > 0:02:50from the very wide skirts and very elaborate silks
0:02:50 > 0:02:55that we're used to seeing her in. So what is this dress actually made of?
0:02:55 > 0:02:58It's actually made of a very fine cotton muslin.
0:02:59 > 0:03:01So, I've got some samples here.
0:03:01 > 0:03:07It comes in a super, super fine, or slightly more opaque.
0:03:07 > 0:03:08So soft, aren't they?
0:03:08 > 0:03:11It's more like... Well, hence why it was so shocking at the time,
0:03:11 > 0:03:13it's more like a nightdress or underwear, really.
0:03:13 > 0:03:18- Yeah.- My understanding of the time is that with this style of gown,
0:03:18 > 0:03:19the chemise a la reine,
0:03:19 > 0:03:22you'd still have your stays and your petticoat underneath,
0:03:22 > 0:03:25and they would still be silk, in the tradition.
0:03:25 > 0:03:29So how do we know that she's wearing stays under this?
0:03:29 > 0:03:33It was still a very strong convention at this date.
0:03:33 > 0:03:35It's a very radical thing to be wearing the chemise on the outside
0:03:35 > 0:03:38when it's essentially a piece of underwear,
0:03:38 > 0:03:42but it's a whole other step for a lady to just let go
0:03:42 > 0:03:46- of her stays altogether.- So how will you make the stays?
0:03:46 > 0:03:49Well, I'm going to get Harriet to make the stays
0:03:49 > 0:03:51and she'll be making them from a linen foundation
0:03:51 > 0:03:54covered with a silk brocade, and
0:03:54 > 0:03:56we've found some really lovely brocade.
0:03:56 > 0:03:58Oh, wow. Look at that!
0:03:58 > 0:04:00I know, it's got little birds and flowers,
0:04:00 > 0:04:02and it feels to me very Marie Antoinette.
0:04:02 > 0:04:05It's very Marie Antoinette, isn't it? Definitely.
0:04:05 > 0:04:09So what particular sort of tools or techniques will you be using
0:04:09 > 0:04:10to recreate this?
0:04:10 > 0:04:15Lots of bone channels to sew, and bones to prepare and insert
0:04:15 > 0:04:17into those channels. It's quite hard on the hands.
0:04:17 > 0:04:20You have to be quite strong, actually,
0:04:20 > 0:04:21to make a good pair of stays.
0:04:21 > 0:04:25And then the chemise, it's really just an awful lot
0:04:25 > 0:04:29of fine hand sewing, because all the sewing is very much on show
0:04:29 > 0:04:32- with the fabric being very sheer like that.- Right.
0:04:32 > 0:04:36And it's really important that all of the edges of the muslin
0:04:36 > 0:04:38are very, very straight.
0:04:38 > 0:04:40That sounds incredibly fiddly.
0:04:40 > 0:04:42- It is, yeah.- Very skilful.
0:04:42 > 0:04:46Again, like we so often say, it looks like this'll be a simple one,
0:04:46 > 0:04:49but there's a lot of yards of hand sewing in that.
0:04:51 > 0:04:53As it's held in private ownership,
0:04:53 > 0:04:55we don't have access to the original painting...
0:04:57 > 0:04:58..but its sister portrait hangs
0:04:58 > 0:05:02at Marie Antoinette's Private Versailles getaway,
0:05:02 > 0:05:05Le Petit Trianon, where the Austrian-born Queen escaped
0:05:05 > 0:05:08the stultifying etiquette of the French court.
0:05:08 > 0:05:11And the chemise gown became the unofficial uniform
0:05:11 > 0:05:13among her inner circle.
0:05:13 > 0:05:17It's also where I'm meeting art curator Juliette Trey.
0:05:17 > 0:05:21So Marie Antoinette's pose in this portrait is very similar
0:05:21 > 0:05:24to the chemise a la reine portrait.
0:05:24 > 0:05:26What's the relationship between the two?
0:05:26 > 0:05:28Oh, they're very close.
0:05:28 > 0:05:30This portrait is actually a kind of replica.
0:05:30 > 0:05:35The portrait with the chemise dress was shown at the salon in 1783.
0:05:35 > 0:05:36And it caused a great scandal.
0:05:36 > 0:05:41And so Vigee Le Brun had to take the painting away and replace it
0:05:41 > 0:05:45straightaway. So she kept exactly the same pose,
0:05:45 > 0:05:47but she changed the dress.
0:05:47 > 0:05:52So what was so shocking about this chemise dress portrait?
0:05:52 > 0:05:56So, the salon is a public exhibition that takes place at the Louvre
0:05:56 > 0:06:00every two years and absolutely everybody goes to the salon.
0:06:00 > 0:06:04This chemise dress was worn already at Versailles,
0:06:04 > 0:06:08but it could be worn inside, it could be one at the Petit Trianon,
0:06:08 > 0:06:11but it could not be worn as a formal dress.
0:06:11 > 0:06:15And the problem with the salon is that the Queen appears
0:06:15 > 0:06:18in front of all the people who come to visit the salon.
0:06:18 > 0:06:21It's as if she's here herself,
0:06:21 > 0:06:24and she could not appear in front of everyone in a...
0:06:24 > 0:06:25An informal dress.
0:06:25 > 0:06:28So that was quite inappropriate.
0:06:28 > 0:06:31Cotton and muslin, which were used for the dress,
0:06:31 > 0:06:35were also the materials you would use for underwear.
0:06:35 > 0:06:37It was also shocking that way,
0:06:37 > 0:06:41to see the queen showing herself in her underwear, so to say.
0:06:41 > 0:06:44So it was more the audacity of having this painting
0:06:44 > 0:06:48shown in public, than the actual dress itself, that was shocking.
0:06:48 > 0:06:51Absolutely, that goes completely against the idea
0:06:51 > 0:06:52that she's the queen.
0:06:52 > 0:06:54She should be there for her people,
0:06:54 > 0:06:57and she should assume her responsibility as a monarch.
0:06:57 > 0:07:01How much did this damage the reputation of Marie Antoinette?
0:07:01 > 0:07:02It's hard to say exactly,
0:07:02 > 0:07:06because she was never very much loved by the French people,
0:07:06 > 0:07:09but we could say that it is the beginning of her downfall.
0:07:23 > 0:07:26Well, I've got the lovely silk brocade
0:07:26 > 0:07:29for the Marie Antoinette stays and I'm just looking to see
0:07:29 > 0:07:33where the pattern lies, because obviously we don't want to cut it
0:07:33 > 0:07:38wastefully, and we want the final pattern to be displayed best
0:07:38 > 0:07:41on the actual pieces of the stays.
0:07:43 > 0:07:47Early stays, you have some whalebone, very, very expensive,
0:07:47 > 0:07:52but many stays are stiffened with reeds.
0:07:52 > 0:07:54They were called bents. It's like dried grasses.
0:07:54 > 0:07:56- Like these?- Yes.
0:07:56 > 0:08:01So you can see, individually, they have no strength at all,
0:08:01 > 0:08:05but when you bundle them up together and hold them very tightly
0:08:05 > 0:08:09inside a channel, it's very good, very flexible.
0:08:09 > 0:08:12It's a wonderful material and even up to the 19th century
0:08:12 > 0:08:16there's records of women, poor women, going and seeking
0:08:16 > 0:08:19down by the riversides, seeking rushes
0:08:19 > 0:08:21to stiffen their own stays with.
0:08:25 > 0:08:29I think this is Marie Antoinette's chemise.
0:08:34 > 0:08:35Wow.
0:08:37 > 0:08:39- That's gorgeous.- That's exactly, isn't it?
0:08:39 > 0:08:41Really lovely.
0:08:41 > 0:08:43So that's her sash.
0:08:43 > 0:08:44And here's the muslin.
0:08:46 > 0:08:48Lovely, lovely.
0:08:48 > 0:08:51- Yeah, nice choice.- She's going to look very fresh, isn't she?
0:08:51 > 0:08:52She is.
0:08:54 > 0:08:57As with everything worn by Marie Antoinette,
0:08:57 > 0:08:59the chemise a la reine became the height of fashion.
0:09:01 > 0:09:04Chemise gowns are so delicate, there are only two
0:09:04 > 0:09:07known to be in existence.
0:09:07 > 0:09:10One is held at a small museum near the Palace of Versailles.
0:09:11 > 0:09:15When we think about 18th-century women's clothing,
0:09:15 > 0:09:21we tend to think about court dress - very formal, very structured,
0:09:21 > 0:09:25the silks, the panniers, the enormous shapes.
0:09:25 > 0:09:28Whereas this, I just would love to put it on and roll around
0:09:28 > 0:09:30on a chaise longue somewhere.
0:09:30 > 0:09:34It looks like it would feel luxurious and comfortable
0:09:34 > 0:09:37and soft and just amazing and...
0:09:38 > 0:09:41Looking at it from a 21st-century perspective,
0:09:41 > 0:09:43this dress does look very simple,
0:09:43 > 0:09:49that kind of Pastoral shepherdess style that Marie Antoinette
0:09:49 > 0:09:52was so in love with in Petit Trianon,
0:09:52 > 0:09:57in the grounds of Versailles, wearing something like this,
0:09:57 > 0:09:59swanning around her gardens.
0:09:59 > 0:10:03You've got this kind of romantic, rural ideal.
0:10:03 > 0:10:07But what we also see is that, simple as it is,
0:10:07 > 0:10:10it would still have been very expensive.
0:10:10 > 0:10:13The muslin itself was actually very expensive.
0:10:13 > 0:10:15It was an imported fabric.
0:10:15 > 0:10:19But, crucially, at this time, keeping something white
0:10:19 > 0:10:23is very laborious, very time-consuming,
0:10:23 > 0:10:25and so very, very expensive.
0:10:25 > 0:10:28It's kind of like wearing a status symbol.
0:10:28 > 0:10:34So, essentially, what it is is a very wealthy woman's idea,
0:10:34 > 0:10:37a queen's idea, of how a peasant might dress,
0:10:37 > 0:10:39or how a shepherdess might dress...
0:10:41 > 0:10:44..which is incredibly patronising, when you think about it.
0:10:44 > 0:10:48And you can really see why that misquote, "Let them eat cake,"
0:10:48 > 0:10:52really stuck to Marie Antoinette when you look at a dress like this.
0:11:07 > 0:11:11Wow, lots of different things going on here, lots of different colours.
0:11:11 > 0:11:14We've all got different bits of Marie Antoinette, haven't we?
0:11:14 > 0:11:16So, take me through in stages.
0:11:16 > 0:11:18I have the chemise a la reine.
0:11:18 > 0:11:21A feature of this garment is a very fine hem all the way...
0:11:21 > 0:11:23Well, lots of very fine hems.
0:11:23 > 0:11:26And the only way you can do a really fine hem on a very thin fabric
0:11:26 > 0:11:30like this is if it's dead straight on the grain.
0:11:30 > 0:11:32And the way to get it dead straight on the grain
0:11:32 > 0:11:33is to draw out a thread first.
0:11:33 > 0:11:38You're drawing out one thread from across this whole length of fabric?
0:11:38 > 0:11:42- Yes.- How, how on Earth do you do that?- I have a pin...
0:11:42 > 0:11:48I pick up the thread with the pin and lift it up.
0:11:50 > 0:11:53- There, you see. And you see how it makes it pucker?- Yeah.
0:11:53 > 0:11:55So I'm left with this very faint, kind of, line
0:11:55 > 0:11:57where I've pulled the thread out.
0:11:57 > 0:12:00That's where I'll cut along with my shears.
0:12:00 > 0:12:02And then I'll know that I can do a nice hem on it.
0:12:02 > 0:12:05Wow, that sounds really, really fiddly.
0:12:05 > 0:12:07So, what are you working on, Harriet?
0:12:07 > 0:12:10Well, I'm working on the stays. These get worn underneath.
0:12:10 > 0:12:13So these are quite tough garments.
0:12:13 > 0:12:15They were cut out by men.
0:12:15 > 0:12:17- Really?- Big responsibility, cutting fabric.
0:12:17 > 0:12:19- Yeah.- If you ruined the silk, then that's...that's a lot of money.
0:12:19 > 0:12:21A lot of money, isn't it?
0:12:21 > 0:12:22How are you with scissors?
0:12:23 > 0:12:26- OK.- Let's throw caution to the wind.
0:12:28 > 0:12:31If you cut around this, cut round the edge.
0:12:33 > 0:12:37This... I feel quite stressed about this.
0:12:37 > 0:12:39So do I.
0:12:39 > 0:12:41Gosh. So literally I'm just cutting...
0:12:41 > 0:12:44- You're just cutting. - ..this exact shape.
0:12:44 > 0:12:45And it's all pinned on, so I shouldn't...
0:12:45 > 0:12:48It's pinned on. It can't go anywhere.
0:12:48 > 0:12:49- OK.- Unless I take it away.
0:12:49 > 0:12:53And if I do that, stop cutting, because something's gone wrong.
0:12:53 > 0:12:54All right, so I'm going in?
0:12:54 > 0:12:56- Going in.- She's doing it.
0:12:56 > 0:12:58- Keep these upright. - Keep those nice and upright.
0:12:58 > 0:13:01SHE GASPS AND THEY ALL GIGGLE
0:13:02 > 0:13:04SCISSORS SNIP
0:13:04 > 0:13:07It's a lovely sound, isn't it? Enjoy the sound.
0:13:07 > 0:13:10All I can hear is screaming inside my head.
0:13:16 > 0:13:17- Yeah?- OK?- Good.
0:13:17 > 0:13:19- Is that all right?- Yes.
0:13:21 > 0:13:24I like how you've all stopped work and you're just staring.
0:13:24 > 0:13:25No pressure.
0:13:25 > 0:13:28Well, she's got my shears. I was going to cut this.
0:13:29 > 0:13:31Come along, apprentice.
0:13:31 > 0:13:33Oh, dear.
0:13:33 > 0:13:35I feel like I'm going to lose control of them,
0:13:35 > 0:13:36because they're so...
0:13:36 > 0:13:39I feel like the end of them is so far away from my hand.
0:13:41 > 0:13:44It's tricky, the curves.
0:13:47 > 0:13:48- Yay!- Lovely.
0:13:48 > 0:13:50- Congratulations.- Brilliant.
0:13:50 > 0:13:54- And so how, how do you rate my cutting?- Fair.
0:13:57 > 0:14:01- Very good.- Can I have my shears back, please?- Yes.- Thank you.
0:14:10 > 0:14:14For a real sense of how radical a departure the new look was,
0:14:14 > 0:14:17we have one remaining direct link to Marie Antoinette.
0:14:22 > 0:14:24Her wardrobe book for 1782,
0:14:24 > 0:14:27just one year before our portrait was painted.
0:14:29 > 0:14:32I cannot wait to see this. This is amazing.
0:14:36 > 0:14:38Oh, wow.
0:14:39 > 0:14:44So this book is so exciting to look at.
0:14:45 > 0:14:51Some of these swatches here, you can see tiny, tiny pinpricks.
0:14:51 > 0:14:55Now, some historians have suggested that this is where Marie Antoinette
0:14:55 > 0:14:59would go through this book and choose the fabrics
0:14:59 > 0:15:05that she wanted to wear that day by putting a pin in them.
0:15:05 > 0:15:09If that's the case, then what we're looking at here,
0:15:09 > 0:15:16just in these tiny holes, is her making these aesthetic decisions,
0:15:16 > 0:15:20these fashion choices, that would go on to define her.
0:15:20 > 0:15:25It just feels like such a tangible link to the past.
0:15:25 > 0:15:28The idea that, you know, she may have been looking through these,
0:15:28 > 0:15:30deciding what to wear.
0:15:30 > 0:15:33That's something that all of us do every day.
0:15:33 > 0:15:36We get up, we decide what we're going to wear.
0:15:37 > 0:15:38Wow.
0:15:38 > 0:15:45These tiny embroidered flowers are absolutely exquisite,
0:15:45 > 0:15:49and, again, just really fit into that idea
0:15:49 > 0:15:54of the sort of pastoral romanticism that was so in vogue at this time,
0:15:54 > 0:15:57and that Marie Antoinette herself was such a champion of.
0:16:00 > 0:16:05Really beautiful array of silks.
0:16:05 > 0:16:12Lyon in France was a huge centre of silk production at this time.
0:16:12 > 0:16:17What Marie Antoinette wore was taken up by her fellow courtiers,
0:16:17 > 0:16:19people outside of the court,
0:16:19 > 0:16:21everyone wanted to dress like the queen.
0:16:21 > 0:16:25She really set the fashions, which then, of course,
0:16:25 > 0:16:30filtered down to the rest of society.
0:16:30 > 0:16:34Seeing the extent of the patterns, and the colours...
0:16:35 > 0:16:40..really brings home how much of a contrast it would be to suddenly see
0:16:40 > 0:16:45Marie Antoinette dressed in a very simple muslin gown.
0:16:45 > 0:16:50She was accused of putting tens of thousands of silk merchants
0:16:50 > 0:16:53out of work, silk manufacturers out of work.
0:16:55 > 0:16:58From looking through these wardrobe books,
0:16:58 > 0:17:02we really get a sense of why Marie Antoinette's attempt
0:17:02 > 0:17:07to simplify her wardrobe became an issue of such contention.
0:17:07 > 0:17:13It really went against two of the most important aspects
0:17:13 > 0:17:18of her royal life. She was expected to encourage French manufacturing,
0:17:18 > 0:17:20support the silk industry,
0:17:20 > 0:17:25and she was also expected to inspire respect for the throne.
0:17:25 > 0:17:28And in dressing like this pastoral shepherdess,
0:17:28 > 0:17:30she really didn't do that.
0:17:30 > 0:17:34She was seen as transgressing class boundaries,
0:17:34 > 0:17:37and she became this incredibly divisive figure.
0:17:55 > 0:18:02I am sewing on casings for the drawstrings in the sleeves
0:18:02 > 0:18:06of the chemise a la reine.
0:18:06 > 0:18:08So this is one sleeve...
0:18:09 > 0:18:13..and you can see the three casings that I'm sewing in.
0:18:13 > 0:18:16And at the end of each casing there's an eyelet hole,
0:18:16 > 0:18:19because through those eyelet holes will be threaded a tape.
0:18:19 > 0:18:23Got this nice, thin cotton tape to thread through.
0:18:24 > 0:18:28And it will create this puffy arrangement that you can see
0:18:28 > 0:18:32in the portrait. She's got these puffed up, gathered bits.
0:18:34 > 0:18:36I'm still working on the stays.
0:18:36 > 0:18:38There is a lot of work in a pair of stays,
0:18:38 > 0:18:41which is ironic when you consider that they then get covered up
0:18:41 > 0:18:42and not seen at all.
0:18:42 > 0:18:46The way this stitch goes, you're coming out of one side
0:18:46 > 0:18:51and going down into the fold of the seam allowance
0:18:51 > 0:18:52on the other side.
0:18:52 > 0:18:56You go right across it because it's going to be going through
0:18:56 > 0:19:00all the layers to get as much of a grip on the other side as you can.
0:19:00 > 0:19:04And then you swing it around and you come down into the other side
0:19:04 > 0:19:08and do the same thing and it forms, like, a figure of eight, which,
0:19:08 > 0:19:11again, kind of locks it together.
0:19:12 > 0:19:16And, really, yeah. I mean, that's really not going anywhere.
0:19:16 > 0:19:19You can see light through it. Just.
0:19:19 > 0:19:21But that's...that's breathing holes.
0:19:28 > 0:19:34By 1789, Marie Antoinette's popularity was at an all-time low.
0:19:34 > 0:19:37The previous winter had been so cold the Seine froze over,
0:19:37 > 0:19:40and a bad harvest meant there wasn't enough bread.
0:19:40 > 0:19:44To many, the court, and particularly the foreign-born queen,
0:19:44 > 0:19:48symbolised all that was wrong with the country.
0:19:48 > 0:19:52On July 14, an angry mob stormed the Bastille prison,
0:19:52 > 0:19:55which had become a symbol of royal dictatorial rule.
0:19:55 > 0:19:58The French Revolution had begun.
0:19:58 > 0:20:01Marie Antoinette spent the last nine weeks of her life here
0:20:01 > 0:20:06at La Conciergerie, a medieval palace turned prison,
0:20:06 > 0:20:09where she was completely stripped of her royal prestige
0:20:09 > 0:20:10and was known as the Widow Capet.
0:20:11 > 0:20:15In strict mourning for her husband, Louis XVI,
0:20:15 > 0:20:17beheaded some months earlier, the queen,
0:20:17 > 0:20:21who had railed against the lack of privacy at the French court,
0:20:21 > 0:20:22was under constant surveillance.
0:20:23 > 0:20:27I'm here to meet historian Andrew Hussey to find out more
0:20:27 > 0:20:29about Marie Antoinette's last days.
0:20:29 > 0:20:34So we're here in what I think is quite a beautiful room.
0:20:34 > 0:20:35It's a chapel of remembrance.
0:20:35 > 0:20:40But it's on the site of the cell that Marie Antoinette was held in
0:20:40 > 0:20:42for the last nine weeks of her life.
0:20:42 > 0:20:46Do we know anything about her state of mind while she was here?
0:20:46 > 0:20:51We know that she came here in the early hours of August the 2nd 1793,
0:20:51 > 0:20:54and a bit like now, there was a heatwave in Paris,
0:20:54 > 0:20:57and it was famously sweltering when she got to this cell.
0:20:57 > 0:21:00And she arrived about two or three o'clock in the morning.
0:21:00 > 0:21:03I think probably in 21st-century terms,
0:21:03 > 0:21:06we would say she was in deep shock and trauma.
0:21:06 > 0:21:09And she never really recovered from that.
0:21:09 > 0:21:11What would her life here have been like?
0:21:11 > 0:21:15Do you know what? It's hard to imagine a sharper difference
0:21:15 > 0:21:19between life at Versailles, which was the big society of the
0:21:19 > 0:21:23spectacle, the great open spaces, the great mise en scene,
0:21:23 > 0:21:27the fetes galante, all these big parties they had, and all of this,
0:21:27 > 0:21:28orgies and all that kind of thing,
0:21:28 > 0:21:33to this claustrophobic, sweltering, nightmarish scene out of Kafka.
0:21:33 > 0:21:37But...but the two are interlinked, and in some ways,
0:21:37 > 0:21:41without being too clever about it, this is the direct contrast
0:21:41 > 0:21:45that links the society of the spectacle on both sides.
0:21:45 > 0:21:49Because here, now, she becomes a celebrity criminal.
0:21:49 > 0:21:54How much did her love of fashion, her love of novelty and luxury,
0:21:54 > 0:21:57how big a part did that play in her downfall?
0:21:57 > 0:22:00I don't think Marie Antoinette was guileless.
0:22:00 > 0:22:03She wasn't a stupid woman, and she knew what she was doing.
0:22:03 > 0:22:07And what she was doing was pursuing an aesthetic life
0:22:07 > 0:22:11rather than a political life. The problem was, in France at that time,
0:22:11 > 0:22:14anything you did was political.
0:22:14 > 0:22:19So she was, as it were, caught in a trap, that whatever she did she was,
0:22:19 > 0:22:21you know, going to be judged on,
0:22:21 > 0:22:24you know, how she looked, how she performed and so on.
0:22:24 > 0:22:30So the fashion side of it wasn't the ditzy Austrian queen of legends,
0:22:30 > 0:22:33but it was always going to be portrayed in terms of decadence,
0:22:33 > 0:22:36in terms of the dangers of absolutism.
0:22:36 > 0:22:39Now, the famous misquote, "Let them eat cake" -
0:22:39 > 0:22:44how true is this version of Marie Antoinette that we have?
0:22:44 > 0:22:46I think on both sides of the Channel, particularly in Britain,
0:22:46 > 0:22:50actually, we've got this Carry On Don't Lose Your Head
0:22:50 > 0:22:53version, Blue Peter version, of Marie Antoinette.
0:22:53 > 0:22:56And it's not true. She was a real woman who was really killed,
0:22:56 > 0:22:59and she was killed just down the road in Place de la Concorde,
0:22:59 > 0:23:02in a city that was full of febrile revolutionaries.
0:23:02 > 0:23:05And as late as the early 19th century,
0:23:05 > 0:23:08animals would not cross the bridge over to Place de la Concorde
0:23:08 > 0:23:12because the stench of blood under the pave was so powerful.
0:23:12 > 0:23:14And I think we forget, you know,
0:23:14 > 0:23:17that this was a city that had become a slaughterhouse.
0:23:17 > 0:23:19It was full of killers,
0:23:19 > 0:23:22and it was full of the rabid, ferocious, murderous energy
0:23:22 > 0:23:26that goes with a great, massive political upheaval.
0:23:26 > 0:23:29And she was a woman who lost her life.
0:23:29 > 0:23:33And she started losing it here in this cell in the heatwave in August.
0:23:35 > 0:23:40On October 16, 1793, Marie Antoinette shed her widow's weeds
0:23:40 > 0:23:43and slipped on a white chemise she'd managed to keep hidden
0:23:43 > 0:23:47from the guards, over which she wore a simple white dress,
0:23:47 > 0:23:49and went to meet her death.
0:23:50 > 0:23:53Crowds lining the streets were stunned into silence
0:23:53 > 0:23:57when confronted by this modest spectral figure,
0:23:57 > 0:24:01her prematurely white hair matching her carefully chosen clothes.
0:24:01 > 0:24:05And so Marie Antoinette saved her most powerful fashion statement
0:24:05 > 0:24:07for last.
0:24:47 > 0:24:48Whoa!
0:24:50 > 0:24:53It is kind of architectural.
0:24:53 > 0:24:56It's incredible. Oh, my God.
0:24:56 > 0:25:00There's absolutely no way that somebody would think
0:25:00 > 0:25:04this was an underwear chemise. With all of the layers as well,
0:25:04 > 0:25:08it's really not in any way see-through, so I...
0:25:08 > 0:25:12You also get a sense that what really angered people
0:25:12 > 0:25:15was this idea of class transgression,
0:25:15 > 0:25:18that she was trying to dress like some kind of shepherdess
0:25:18 > 0:25:20or farmer's daughter.
0:25:20 > 0:25:24And, you know, when you're wearing this,
0:25:24 > 0:25:28the idea of doing any kind of herding sheep is just...
0:25:28 > 0:25:33It's an horrific pastiche, isn't it? In that respect.
0:25:33 > 0:25:36It's so much more kind of meringuey!
0:25:37 > 0:25:40It is, in effect, Princess Diana's wedding dress.
0:25:40 > 0:25:42- Yes.- Really.
0:25:42 > 0:25:44But she wasn't wearing the stays that you're wearing,
0:25:44 > 0:25:47so she had a defined, curvy body.
0:25:48 > 0:25:51And you have the conical 18th-century body.
0:25:53 > 0:25:56- The sash is a triumph, Hannah. - Yes, it is.- Looks really lovely.
0:25:58 > 0:26:02It is weightless to wear, it completely is.
0:26:02 > 0:26:05Like, the only pressure on your body is the pressure of the stays.
0:26:05 > 0:26:09So then to wear something like this after having worn silks
0:26:09 > 0:26:13would have felt incredibly liberating, I think.
0:26:13 > 0:26:14Very, very freeing.
0:26:14 > 0:26:18It's so fascinating wearing this, having really, you know,
0:26:18 > 0:26:23spent some time inside her life, almost.
0:26:23 > 0:26:28And thinking about the magnitude of that moment when the portrait
0:26:28 > 0:26:30went on display.
0:26:32 > 0:26:35- Yeah, it's quite unlike anything that came before, isn't it?- Yeah.
0:26:35 > 0:26:38I suppose she was damned for wearing too much silk
0:26:38 > 0:26:41and then dammed for wearing none. Poor thing.
0:26:41 > 0:26:43She really couldn't win.
0:26:43 > 0:26:45She really didn't win.
0:26:52 > 0:26:54Wearing this dress,
0:26:54 > 0:26:58I wasn't expecting how much kind of volume and structure
0:26:58 > 0:27:01all of the interior lacing was going to give it.
0:27:01 > 0:27:04So it had a much more dramatic silhouette.
0:27:05 > 0:27:10And also, of course, you have the physical experience
0:27:10 > 0:27:13of wearing stays, wearing a corset underneath,
0:27:13 > 0:27:17gives so much more structure and formality
0:27:17 > 0:27:21than you're expecting with a garment that has always been
0:27:21 > 0:27:25talked about as being too informal for a queen to wear.
0:27:27 > 0:27:28It really gave me an understanding
0:27:28 > 0:27:32of why it would appeal to Marie Antoinette.
0:27:32 > 0:27:37The lightness of the fabric, it's just completely a world away
0:27:37 > 0:27:41from what she would have been expected to wear at court.
0:27:41 > 0:27:44These very sort of strict rules of etiquette and dress
0:27:44 > 0:27:48that we know she really did not like.
0:27:48 > 0:27:50She felt very constrained by this.
0:27:50 > 0:27:53So the weightlessness, the freedom, the liberation
0:27:53 > 0:27:56that this garment offered, you really get a sense of that
0:27:56 > 0:27:58when you actually have it on.
0:28:01 > 0:28:05Clothes affect the way that we move through the world.
0:28:05 > 0:28:09They affect the way that we stand, the way we hold ourselves.
0:28:09 > 0:28:13And so having the experience of putting these clothes on,
0:28:13 > 0:28:15wearing these clothes on the body,
0:28:15 > 0:28:18feeling the way that these people would have felt
0:28:18 > 0:28:21and would have moved through the world,
0:28:21 > 0:28:23is a really invaluable experience.