Marie Antoinette’s Fashion and Jewels to Go on Display at the V&A in September
“Marie Antoinette Style” will showcase many of the queen’s rarely seen personal effects while exploring her enduring influence on contemporary designers
While her extravagant lifestyle, elaborate wardrobe, and decadent diamonds made her wildly unpopular during the time of her reign, there’s no denying that Marie Antoinette was the most fashionable queen in history. She, alongside her husband King Louis VI, were emblematic of the wealth discrepancies that lead to the French Revolution of 1789, an event that eventually resulted in the monarchs’ execution.
Contemporary audiences—and quite a few design luminaries—have come to appreciate Marie Antoinette as an enduring icon of the Rococo era’s reigning style conventions. Now, a new exhibition, “Marie Antoinette Style,” on view September 20 through March 22, 2026, is heading to the Victoria & Albert Museum, where it will invite the last Queen of France’s admirers to experience her wardrobe, jewels, and other personal belongings up close.
Curated through the lens of Marie Antoinettes’ vivacity, legendary flamboyance, and centuries-long notoriety, the exhibition features 250 objects, including many never seen outside of the gilded halls of Versailles. Beyond these rarities, the show also will explore the queen’s complex legacy as a “celebrity royal”—then and now—as well as her being a favorite source of inspiration for leading designers and creatives such as Moschino, Manolo Blahnik, Dior, Chanel and Vivienne Westwood.
“The rare combination of glamour, spectacle, and tragedy she presents remains as intoxicating today as it was in the 18th century,” says exhibition curator Sarah Grant. Highlights include the famous Sutherland Diamond necklace, which was acquired by the V&A through Sotheby’s in 2022. At the center of one of jewelry history’s most famous mysteries, l’affaire du collier de la Reine, the piece is an 18th century rivière of 20 collet-set old-mine-cut diamonds, some as large as 15 carats. As the auction house explains, Marie Antoinette figures prominently in the ordeal’s many twists and turns—basically, she was the victim of an elaborate attempted scam—but never actually owned the necklace. Yet the scandal did irrevocable damage to her reputation and, according to Sotheby’s, contributed greatly to the tinder box that ignited the French Revolution.
Two other important jewels belonging to Marie Antoinette, believed to have been smuggled out of France before her death, also stand out among the objects on display. On view is a natural pearl and diamond pendant that Sotheby’s sold for $36 million in 2018, and a double-ribbon bow brooch with cushion-shape and round diamonds made in the second half of the 18th century; the yellow diamond detachable pendant may have been added in the 19th century.
Some artifacts are more humble, but equally compelling, inviting guests even further into the queen’s resplendent bedchamber: fragments of a court gown, a single satin slipper in beaded pink silk, and a perfume bottle from her Nécessaire de voyage (i.e., a French travel box that was popular between the 17th and 19th centuries used to transport everything from portable tea accoutrements to toiletries).
Beyond showcasing these things of beauty, the exhibition seeks to connect the essential elements of Marie Antoinette’s style to the present day through a progression of multiple sections. Each uses multi-media installations, theatrical staging, or sensory experiences to examine how her signatures have been continually reimagined over the course 250 years. Examples include luminous watercolor illustrations by Erté, George Barbier, and Edmund Dulac; contemporary works by artist Beth Katleman and fashion, textile, and rug designer Victor Glemaud; and an immersive experience will re-create scents of the court, including the perfume favored by the queen herself.
Tickets for the exhibition are already on sale; there is also a companion coffee table book for those who wish to (or sadly must) experience the show from afar. And there may or may not be a dress code calling for towering wigs and toile. Tous est possible!