Episode 10 Inside Versailles

Hello and welcome to Inside Versailles.

Well, Greg, I'm reeling from that finale.

So we've got Montcourt is dead,

Fabien is stabbed,

and Rohan has run off with the Dauphin.

Exactly. It rhymes! Yeah.

And, surprisingly, actually, kind of true.

There is elements of truth there.

-I'm not going to give away plot spoilers for series two...

-No.

..so I'm not going to tell you how it ends, but there is truth there.

And what about poor Henriette?

Yeah, sadly, that one - also true.

She died in 1670...

In a lot of pain, a pretty horrible death and...

-Poison?

-Well, at the time, that's the theory.

There's great accusations going round the court that she

has been poisoned by the Chevalier de Lorraine,

the lover of Philippe, who is in exile in Rome,

and has allegedly sent poison through the post.

Now, I think, historians think it's actually natural causes.

Probably a burst ulcer, which is not a nice way to go.

The tragic thing, of course, it's a very sad end to a very lovely woman,

but also for Louis, it puts him in a bit of a pickle.

She is the sister of the King of England

-and she has apparently maybe died from poison.

-Oops.

So, suddenly, finger-pointing and everyone's a bit upset,

so a bit awkward.

Well, it's been an amazing journey through the magnificent court,

the intrigue, the power politics,

but I think it would be a bit remiss of us

not to talk about the incredible fashion

and joining us to do that is Amber Butchart,

who's going to talk all about the glamour of Louis himself.

Here he is, a bit older than we've seen him so far.

He is. This is Louis about 30 years after we last saw him,

but we can really see here how he's totally used fashion

to create this absolute spectacle of power.

And this is something that he does throughout his reign.

He's created this amazing palace in Versailles

and he wants all of his courtiers,

everyone who's in this palace,

to look as spectacular as the palace itself.

So, it's pretty expensive.

We've got ermine, we've got lace,

he's got silks,

-he really is millions of pounds just walking around.

-Exactly.

All of these things are hugely expensive, down to the red dye.

The red-heeled shoes

because that's the most expensive dye you can get, isn't it, the red?

Yes, and the whole portrait is him really showing that off.

He's showing off his wealth,

showing off his virility with his silk stockings.

-Great legs.

-Dancer's legs.

-It's not a subtle message.

It is not a subtle message, no.

I like that he looks a bit like a showgirl -

-that's what I especially like about it.

-Can-can girl.

-There's a slight Cher wig, isn't there, as well?

-Yes.

Do you know he had 1,000 wigs?

That's probably too many, but, you know, each to their own.

Presumably, if you're going to look that good all the time,

and his nobles have to look that good all the time,

is it going to cost them a bit?

It is going to cost them an awful lot of money.

In fact, this bankrupted many of his courtiers, many of his nobles.

-And what he would do...

-Fashion victims, then.

Fashion victims, exactly.

What Louis would do was lend them the money,

so they were constantly in debt to him,

which also is quite a shrewd move because not only has he then created

this absolutely spectacular court, where everyone looks amazing

and dazzling all of the time,

but he has also got his nobles involved in this

kind of power system with him, where they're constantly in debt to him.

So, Greg and I, what kind of look should we adopt

if we need to be in with Louis?

Well, you may well wear a dress that became known as the "grand habit",

which is an incredibly structured gown with wide shoulders.

Louis himself was a very big fan of the sort of decollete.

Off-the-shoulder look.

-Off-the-shoulder look.

-So I need to have a dress somewhere around here,

so it is not just that I have forgotten to pull it up, that's the look.

That's the look, whether it's cold,

whether, you know, you're in bright sunlight,

Louis favours this area on a women.

-It has to be exposed.

-It has to be exposed.

-And what kind of colours?

-If you want to be in with Louis,

then the red heels are a definite.

-The red heels. They'd look good on you, Greg.

-Yep, definitely.

He also...if you were really in with Louis,

then what you could wear is an item called the justaucorps,

which he created as almost a court uniform,

which was this very lavish blue coat

with sort of gold and silver embroidery on it as well.

-That's boys only, isn't it?

-That's boys only. He only created...

He only let 50 people wear them at any one time.

So it's like the quarterback jacket then,

-in the high school movie, only the jocks get to wear it.

-Exactly.

So, for Louis, fashion is all about power and control.

Yes, but it had been for quite a long time.

Before Louis, it tended to be the case that

the country with the most political power

would also be the country that would set the fashions around Europe.

-Fashion power!

-Exactly.

Fashion equals power. So, before Louis, this was Spain,

which set fashions for black clothing

around the courts of Europe.

Now, Louis was really the absolute antithesis to this.

He ushered in a new style of dressing for men,

so men stopped wearing the doublet and hose

and started wearing a much more form-fitting silhouette.

So, you've got breeches,

you've got the justaucorps, the tight-fitting coat,

-and you've also got this, the waistcoat...

-Fabulous.

..which is introduced. Doesn't look quite like this then,

but obviously goes on to look like this in later days.

So he really changed the way that men were dressing.

He ushered in a sort of style of dress that really evolved

into the way that men still dress today.

Yeah, I have a lot in common with Louis. Lou and I, we're great buddies.

And, of course, you are wearing a cravat,

which is also something that comes in at this time as well.

Is it called a jabot, as well, sometimes, in French?

Yep, jabot. Yes, exactly.

So this is kind of modified from the ruffs

that were being worn in earlier eras.

And what's great about the cravat, and also about the sleeves as well,

is that it can be made of this very intricate, exquisite lace.

So, again, you're showing your wealth, literally on your sleeves,

around your neck, because creating these textiles costs so much money.

In fact, they can grow to huge sizes as well.

We've seen a brilliant array of cravats throughout the whole

of the Versailles series.

I am a particular fan of the cravats in the show.

But they really did grow to big sizes.

There was actually a play written in England in the 1690s

that disparagingly called them a slabbering bib...

-Lovely.

-..which I like.

So, they're covered in gravy and people are just sort of

-dipping them into their soup.

-Gets in your soup.

Yeah, exactly, tricky stuff.

He looks fantastic. Does he smell fantastic?

Because from what I know of the 17th century,

people aren't really washing at the courts.

Doctors are telling them that washing off the dirt allows

plague into your body, so they're changing their shirt quite often,

but they're not washing underneath it.

Do these layers stop the smell getting in, or what else is

happening to stop, you know, the pungency?

Well, Louis was also fostering sort of perfumiers at this time,

as well, for that very reason.

But in terms of hygiene, the shirt at this time was very much

an item of underwear.

It's the layer that's worn against the skin.

If you are a man, it's the shirt.

If you are a woman, it's the chemise.

So it's vital that you have this layer

that can be taken off and washed.

And that's not to say it couldn't be quite luxurious,

it could be made of very fine linen, or silk cambric.

Where is it being made?

Is it French-made, is it imports?

It's being made in France.

In fact, by this point especially,

absolutely everything that he's wearing is being made in France.

This was a huge part of the drive by Louis, and his minister Colbert,

to make sure that absolutely all of these luxury textiles,

luxury items, were being made in France to bolster the economy.

In fact, he even put sumptuary laws on the statue books, saying that

people could not import fabrics from other places - he made it illegal.

He also issued an edict saying that

his courtiers had to dress fashionably.

So, in doing these two measures, he's really making

sure that the fashion industry in France

is becoming a key part of its economic system.

He creates a massive industry, doesn't he?

And the idea that a third of people in Paris are working in fashion -

it's just a massive economy booster.

And you still see remnants of this today.

In the haute couture system that exists in Paris,

some of that is still enshrined in the statute books.

It's still a sort of legalised process of, you know,

absolutely exquisite luxury handcrafts.

So Paris is still the centre of fashion.

Paris is still the centre of fashion, thanks to Louis XIV.

-Unfortunately, we've run out of time, so thank you so much, Amber.

-Thanks.

And I'm afraid you can't join us next week because we're done,

but I hope you enjoyed the series.

-Bon soir.

-Bon soir.