LONDON — It was Manolo Blahnik’s night on Thursday, with a private view of the new Victoria and Albert Museum show, “Marie Antoinette Style,” and a lavish, 18th-century-inspired dinner celebrating the designer’s lifelong affection for the troubled French queen. His company is also the sole sponsor of the show, which opens Saturday and is set to tour America after it wraps up in London in March.
Blahnik’s designs — old and new — were everywhere.
Shoes and booties from his new Marie Antoinette capsule collection peeked from little green trees and bushes set up in the museum’s big marble hallway. The hand-tufted shoes he created for Sofia Coppola’s 2006 Marie Antoinette film were also on display, alongside the queen’s own silk slippers, jewels from her private collection and intimate items from her toilette case.
So which shoes did Blahnik choose to wear on the big night? “The comfy ones!” said the dapper designer, referring to the colorful, silk patchwork slip-ons that he paired with a dark suit, bow tie and signature round glasses.
Blahnik said he liked the queen’s personal effects in particular, and oohed and ahhed over her Sèvres porcelain tableware from the Petit Trianon. “Look — there’s not a scratch or a mark on them,” he said.
Charming isn’t the ideal word to describe this show, given the guillotine blade from 1793 that’s on display alongside the wrinkled white cotton chemise the queen donned for her execution. Instead, it’s intimate, bittersweet and shows why Marie Antoinette, despite being so physically small, looms large in history and popular culture.
“Look at the size of her waist in that corset,” marveled Richard E. Grant, pointing to the doll-like mannequin in one of the rooms. He was wandering through the exhibition with fellow guests Sandy Powell, Jasper Conran, Yasmin Le Bon, Tali Lennox and Fran Lebowitz, who’s in the midst of a whistle stop tour of Europe, talking to audiences about society, politics and U.S. President Donald Trump.
A look from Manolo Blahnik‘s Marie Antoinette limited-edition capsule collection.
Courtesy of Manolo Blahnik
There are also mile-wide court dresses; a step-by-step look at the queen’s daily toilette, and a replica of the jewels from the Affair of the Diamond Necklace, which saw Marie Antoinette’s reputation damaged by false criminal accusations.
“It’s swell. But I don’t think it will catch on,” said Lebowitz of all the corseted styles, bling-y jewels and pouf-y hair on display.
Lebowitz was wrong. The queen’s style did catch on. One of the rooms is a fashion explosion — a look at how 20th- and 21st-century designers have drawn inspiration from Marie Antoinette and her style. There are dresses from designers including Karl Lagerfeld, John Galliano for Dior, Erdem Moralioglu and Jeremy Scott for Moschino.
Chief executive officer Kristina Blahnik, who’s been growing the business and working hard to preserve her uncle’s legacy, had pushed for sole sponsorship of the show.
“Marie Antoinette has long been entwined with our family’s imagination,” she told guests who were seated at a long dinner table that was laden with figs, grapes, Austrian artisan bread, sugared almonds and edible swan sculptures made from meringue, chantilly cream and berries.
“When we first heard that the V&A was mounting a Marie Antoinette exhibition, I made it my life’s mission to ensure that it would be my uncle’s name — only — next to Marie Antoinette’s,” said Blahnik who, like the queen herself, stands by her family.
Kristina Blahnik and Manolo Blahnik at the private view of Marie Antoinette Style at the V&A.
WireImage/Courtesy of Manolo Bla