An exhibition dedicated to fashion, jewelry and trends that draw inspiration from Marie Antionette will launch at London’s Victoria and Albert Museum in September.
“Marie Antoinette Style,” scheduled to open September 20, will be the first exhibition in the UK devoted to the French queen, the museum claimed. Among the 250 pieces it will showcase will be special items from the Palace of Versailles that have never been on display outside France. The exhibition will blend historical and contemporary fashion while exploring Marie Antionette’s legacy and how she has remained a lasting source of inspiration.
Rare personal belongings at the show will include intricately adorned fragments of her court dress and jewels from her private collection. The jewelry offering comprises a brooch of double ribbons studded with diamonds, suspending a natural pearl, which soared past its $2 million high estimate at Sotheby’s in 2018 to fetch $36 million. The exhibition will also incorporate the Sutherland necklace from the museum’s collection, which is thought to contain diamonds from the Boehmer and Bassenge diamond necklace. The original piece was the star of the diamond necklace affair of 1784 to 1785, in which it was stolen, dismantled and sold in London’s Bond Street. Additional items are painted portraits of the monarch, one of her beaded pink slippers, a chair set and a crystal flask labeled “eau de cologne.”
“The most fashionable, scrutinized and controversial queen in history, Marie Antoinette’s name summons both visions of excess and objects and interiors of great beauty,” said exhibition curator Sarah Grant. The queen had “an enormous impact on European taste and fashion in her own time,” she continued, adding that her “distinctive style” now has “universal appeal.”
“This exhibition explores that style and the figure at its center, using a range of exquisite objects belonging to Marie Antoinette, alongside the most beautiful fine and decorative objects that her legacy has inspired,” Grant commented.
The museum will present the show in chronological order, with the first section beginning in 1770 and ending in 1793 at the time of Marie Antoinette’s execution. The next segment will look at how Empress Eugénie revived the queen’s romanticized image in the 19th century, igniting a lasting style obsession, followed by an area that focuses on the late 19th-century shift toward fantasy, where the queen’s image came to symbolize beauty, enchantment, and decadence. Lastly, the exhibition highlights her lasting impact on fashion and pop culture, offering fresh takes on her iconic style.
Marie Antoinette Style will run at the Victoria and Albert Museum in South Kensington, London, from September 20 to March 22, 2026.
Images: The Sutherland Diamonds, a painting of Marie Antoinette, and Marie Antoinette’s diamond and pearl brooch. (The Victoria and Albert Museum/Sotheby’s)