naturallylottie:

Today I was lucky enough to see a bodice that was worn by none other than the Marie Antoinette. I visited a fashion & textile museum in my city, a place where they store 30,000 fashion & textile related items – from embroidered wall hangings from the 1800s to Queen Victoria’s dresses to shoes from the 1960s! It was truly an amazing experience, and I feel very lucky to have visited with my college today.

This bodice is the only item they have of Marie Antoinette’s – the collection is mostly British – it was part of a full dress, however, all that truly remains of it is this bodice. The story behind this is that a governor from her court moved to England, and was sent this dress after her death. At some point, one of his family members got a hold of the dress, and cut up the skirt to make a more modern dress (the more modern version is also in the box, and you can see it has been altered as it is nothing like the skirts Marie would have worn.) One of his more recent family members donated this to the museum.

I was quite amazed that someone went and cut up this most beautiful dress that once belonged to her – something that I was so excited to be in the presence of, I mean, Marie Antoinette seriously wore this bodice! However, I do know the history and the story of Marie and the general feeling towards her before and after her death, so while I was annoyed I was not extremely surprised.

As much as I’d have loved for it to be a full dress – huge skirts and all – of hers, I was thankful enough to see this bodice. The detailing was beautiful. While the fabric was a simple blue and white striped pattern, it is made entirely of silk (which has sadly started to disintegrate over time, despite the museums utmost care.) The fabric was gorgeous and I imagine it would have looked splendid with it’s full skirt and a beautiful hairdo, I can picture it in my mind. It was very small – Marie must have been so tiny! It had gorgeous small buttons carefully sewn onto it, and the back piece was a beautiful shape. It had all its original boning as well! I even got to closely view the absolutely amazing hand stitching that holds it all together – so intricate and tightly done long before the time of sewing machines came. I hate to think how long it must have taken to sew – however, it was something that they were used to in those days, and my god does it show in the detailing of this dress.

I have every intention of going back to view it again, along with the two of Queen Victoria’s dresses that they have!