MARIE ANTOINETTE’s DRESS

2005/ 2006

I started researching Marie Antoinette life in summer 2005. By the end of the year I had a design which I wanted to create. Marie Antoinette’s dress, 18th century robe a la francaise which I designed and brought to life during four months of production. (I was working as the costume designer on other shows at the time).

Marie Antoinette’s Design Book has even more pages of research and costume drawings than Sissi’s.

I was searching for a sewing technique which would create detail worthy of the Queen; I run into a smocking technique. It was showcased only on one picture and as Marie Antoinette was very fashionable significant woman she would wear something unique elaborate beautiful and elegant.

The dress consist of six pieces: corset, pannier, underskirt, stomacher, dress and the detail.

Since I wasn’t able to find a light weight pale blue fabric with naturally embroidered 18th century detail in Vancouver; I ended up buying 8m x 3m of white Jacquard which I dyed in the bathtub.

I started to build the undergarments first:

The smocking detail on the underskirt, dress and stomacher is hand-stitched, it took hours and hours to put together.