

A martyr for hair
And let’s not forget about the shear inconvenience of putting radishes in your hair. To sleep, ladies would have to wrap their hair up like conical packages supported with piles of pillows. It would have made an interesting slumber party today. Vermin especially enjoyed the high-hair craze and made protective nests out of them. (Special head scratchers were designed to provide relief.) And imagine having to stick your head out your carriage like a dog or kneel on the carriage floor to get your hair sculpture safely to the ball. Marie would shun tight-fitting corsets, but would make any sacrifice for her hair.

Was it all just to look pretty?


So what do you think? Was Marie just a bored queen playing dress-up? Or was she trying to make both political and fashion statements.?
A Blogging Dare
Now that I have shared my disastrous 80’s flashback…..I dare anyone to post their own version of the 80's pouf or any other bad hair moment.
Sources:
Weber, Caroline. Queen of Fashion, What Marie Antoinette wore to the Revolution: Henry Holt & Co, New York, NY, 2006.
1 Weber, Queen of Fashion, 105
Lever, Evelyne. Marie Antoinette, The Last queen of France. New York, NY: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2000.
Marie Antoinette. DVD. PBS, David Grubin Productions, Inc., 2006.
Illustration Credits:
Image 1: Art by Carlyn Beccia
Image 2: Unknown, Servants Standing on a Ladder, Preparing a Pouf for Bed (C. 1778). The Picture Gallery at the New York Public Library
Image 3: Carlyn Beccia sporting big hair, copyright long expired.
Image 4: French Fashion Caricature: Coiffure a' l' Independence of The Triumph of Liberty (c. 1778) . Reunion des Musees Nationaux/Art Resource, NY)
Image 5: 1778 fashion plate of French court dress with wide panniers and artificially enchanced "big hair". Plate 43 in Galerie des Modes for 1778. Caption: "Jeune Dame de Qualité en grande Robe coëffée avec un Bonnet ou Pouf élégant dit la Victoire. Dessiné par Desrais. Gravé par Voysant."Scanned by H.Churchyard. More info
6 comments:
Great post.
However, Marie-Antoinette's attempt at launching the radish headdress flopped (according to Madame Tussaud, who grew up in Versailles.)
This is a marvelous site! Great art and great entertainment. I have a wonderfully cringe-making photo of my husband (great hair) with the blow-dryed bouffant hairdo I used to create for him in the early 80s!
What a delightful jaunt into the history of hairstyle. And a nice illo too. We had the "joke catchers" in the 80's where I came from, a stiffened wave of hair straight up from the forehead.
What a fantastic site! I love all the commentary on Marie Antoinette and her times! I survived the 80s, but I've always had big hair! You have a great website!
www.indigeneartforms.blogspot.com
Fantastic illo!
Oh, 80's hair, oh yes, the stories I could tell. I remember the routine. Everything had to be right, the shampoo, conditioner, mousse, curling gel, only a certain type of blowdryer, brushes. A failed coif was cause for tears and, believe it or not, girls were not unknown to start the whole routine again, or even skip school on a particularly bad hair day. I can very well identify with the obsession with big, BIG hair!
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