Welcome to One Fine Showwhen the Observer highlights an exhibit that just opened at a museum outside of New York City, a place we know and love is already getting a lot of attention.
I was in Paris at the time of the Louvre heist, and although my alibi is solid, I could not have predicted the degree to which the heist would capture the imagination of New Yorkers. The robbery inspired dozens of Halloween costumes and signs at last month’s race. I think people like to think of an Ernst Blofeld type figure, waiting for a jewel to be delivered so he can admire it in a secret place or put it on his cat or something. It has since become clear that this meant nothing more than a rise in the price of gold. Still, you can’t blame people for lusting after a badass who puts style above all else.
Marie Antoinette was certainly one of those, and whether you love her or hate her, the recently opened exhibition at the Victoria & Albert Museum, “The Style of Marie Antoinette,” is a must see. It’s a fashion show—not a historical exhibition with a large number of artifacts—but it recreates its world well. An example of a “diamond necklace,” for example, sits next to other sparkling jewelry that belonged to her.
It is a view of her life through the lens of how she chose to look. His shoes were very flimsy, you could see he hadn’t been walking much. He had so many dominoes that you find yourself wondering how there could be a need for so many people. My favorite items in the show were the gilded satin gardening tools from the Petit Trianon, his Disney-themed villa in Versailles.
This is one of those “One Great Shows” that I’m excited to see in person, and I’m glad I did because there’s no way to transfer a show design from a checklist. They don’t shy away from anything, first marked by a series of plastic busses inviting you to smell the world of Marie Antoinette through a series of holes at the base of the neck. The perfume that flowed in his yard was as talked about and happy as all his life, but the last one in the line is very dirty. Is the machine broken? No, it simulates an 18th century prison. This was close to a roomful of dirty cartoons about him from the moment it all started to go wrong, and it really creeped me out. Next comes the red room and the last thing he ever wears: a thin prison smock.
Not to end on a low note, the show ends with an array of haute couture inspired by him, from Manolo Blahnik, Vivienne Westwood and Christian Dior, with Sofia Coppola’s costumes from Marie Antoinette. One risks a stomach ache with all those sweets, but it makes you think about the power of a cohesive look. The super rich today are proud of the way they dress, but many of them look like absolute shit. Marie Antoinette was no more corrupt than her aristocratic contemporaries and managed to create a vibe that lasted for centuries. It’s hard to imagine many Instagram feeds ending up at the V&A.
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