Well having finished reading Caroline Weber's book 'Queen of fashion-What Marie Antoinette wore to the revolution' this week, and feeling in quite a creative mood at the moment (spending the weekend at the OHs mums house for a few days holiday and I'm feeling quite calm and relaxed, hence creative and not so stressed about having uni work to do in time for going back on Monday) so I thought I'd write a quick review, to pass some time before bed.
Being quite passionate about historical costume, particularly 17th and 18th century, I love a good study of it. However, there are very few decent books on the subject, most are patterns and pictures (not that I don't love a good picture book!) recent films have been relatively good, for example Marie Antoinette and Dutchess. Caroline Weber's contribution though is an incredible contribution to the feild, written somewhere between being a novel and a textbook, so it's an interesting read, you get all of the info from a textbook, with the easiness of reading the novel.
Queen of Fashion talks about the life of Marie Antoinette, from her arrival in France at age 14, her marriage to the daupin Louis VXI, and their initially difficult marriage, through to her rise to being queen of fashion, France's most admired woman, through to her steady decline from power during the revolution to her eventual execution at the guillotine. The book concentrates on the queens control over her fashion choices, an approach which isn't taken by any other biographer of Marie Antoinette. Queen of Fashion acknowledges that the queens influence over her peoples aesthetic values was so great that even during the revolution when she was hated by them, her stylistic choices were still imitated.
The book takes a slightly biased approach, written from a sympathetic perspective to the queens plight, but overall it is a highly recommended read, for anyone, especially students, interested in historical costume.
http://www.amazon.com/Queen-Fashion-Marie-Antoinette-Revolution/dp/0312427344
(Link to amazon.com for Caroline Weber's Queen of fashion- what Marie Antoinette wore to the revolution)
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