What do a pair of pink silk slippers, a priceless diamond necklace and an 18th century porcelain drinking cup shaped like a woman’s breast have in common? They’re all objects belonging to Queen Marie Antoinette (1755-1793), just a few of 250+ items on display in the V&A’s latest show. Marie Antoinette Style is the first ever UK exhibition dedicated to the most fashionable –– and legendary –– queen in history.
This unusual show explores the life and lasting cultural influence of the Austrian-born, French queen and wife of the ill-fated King Louis XVI. During her short life, “Toinette” managed to be admired, envied, despised, controversial, influential, spectacularly extravagant and ultimately tragic. Like her husband, she lost her head by French Revolutionary guillotine, aged 37.
The V&A exhibition features a selection of the Queen’s shoes, gowns, dazzling jewellery, exquisite dinner service, intimate items from her toilette case and a variety of astonishing wigs.
Perhaps the most curious object on display is a bol-sein, or “la jatte-téton”, a bosom-shaped drinking cup complete with nipple, made from fine Sèvres porcelain. In 1787, King Louis surprised his wife with a 65-piece Sèvres dinner service for the pretend dairy farm he had built at their Château de Rambouillet. Here, she could play out her fantasy of being a simple country milkmaid. The service included four jatte-tétons –– bowls shaped like breasts, designed for drinking milk. Legend has it they were modelled from the Queen’s own mammaries.
Marie Antoinette’s influence on style and fashion continues to this day –– the ultimate fashionista gift that keeps on giving. The exhibition also includes contemporary fashion and creative work, inspired by the legendary queen, from leading designers and artists from Sofia Coppola and Manolo Blahnik to Moschino and Vivienne Westwood. According to V&A curator Sarah Grant, “Marie Antoinette’s name summons both visions of excess and objects and interiors of great beauty…whose power to fascinate has never ebbed.”
The show is, fittingly, sponsored by renowned shoe designer Manolo Blahnik.
Marie Antoinette Style, Victoria & Albert Museum, London
Where & When
V&A South Kensington, Cromwell Road, London, SW7 2RL
20 September 2025 – 22 March 2026
Tickets
Tickets from £20 (concessions from £13), free for V&A members & children under 12
For more information and tickets click here
Cover image: Film still from Sofia Coppola’s Marie Antoinette, courtesy of I WANT CANDY LLC & Zoetrope Corp
