Shocking Trends and Luxury Fashion

Rose Bertin, a milliner, and the dressmaker to Queen Marie Antoinette, was dubbed the “Minister of Fashion”. Despite being a commoner, she was often received at court by the queen, in breach of etiquette because Marie Antoinette was very passionate about fashion, and she expressed herself through dresses. Bertin was hugely influential over the trends of the French court, due to her proximity to and influence over the queen. Marie Antoinette, criticized for her flamboyance dresses, was never able to strike the right balance between clothing that was appropriate for monarchy while not demonstrating excessive opulence in a land that was increasingly economically divided. In the early 1980’s, encouraged by Rose Bertin, Marie Antoinette took up a simpler, faux rural mode of dressing up when at Petit Trianon, her country retreat in the grounds of the Palace of Versailles.

The look consisted of loose Muslin dresses, worn without panniers so the soft fabric could shockingly mold to the shape of the legs. A portrait of the queen in this style caused moral outrage across the country. The dress was so light and flimsy that it was believed she had painted her underwear on, and it quickly garnered the moniker “chemise a la reine.” Not only was this scandalous, but she was also accused of lacking patriotism. The swathes of Muslin, imported from India, led to accusations that she was putting French Silk merchants out of business. Marie Antoinette eventually reverted to the elaborate court styles, where Bertin’s opulent creations became symbolic of the imbalance of wealth of the Ancient Régime. While people starved and revolution drew closer, pamphleteers denounced Bertin as corrupt and a corrupted maker of luxury goods.

Marie Antoinette herself, a symbol of the excess of aristocracy, was guillotined in 1793. Rose Bertin fled to London to avoid the Terror, and only returned to France in 1795, by which time the upheaval had irrevocably changed fashion and paved the way for more egalitarian styles to gain favor.The famous dressmaker lived quite an interesting life. Rose Bertin was born in Abbeville, a textile town in Northern France. At age sixteen, she was apprenticed to a ‘marchande de modes’ otherwise known as ‘a milliner’ in English, although the literal translation is female fashion merchant in French. She was so successful that in 1770, she opened her shop, The Grand Mogol, on rue Saint-Honoré.

The trimmings were often more expensive than the cloth from which the dress was made. Interestingly, Bertin was the first fashion designer who charged as much for her talent as her materials.

In 1774, Bertin met Marie Antoinette, who became her most famous customer. Although, according to her records, she had over 1,500 clients. These included the French and European aristocracy, actresses, and even the Queens of Sweden, Spain, and Portugal.

Rose Bertin exerted a significant influence over the fashion of the era, constantly launching new trends, such as extravagant gowns for court appearances, towering ‘pouf’ hairstyles, and the rustic muslin dresses which Marie Antoinette wore at the Trianon Palace. Soon enough, Bertin came to be regarded as the unofficial “Minister of Fashion”