Designer Raf Simons

For the 2014 Dior Couture Fall/Winter collection, designer Raf Simons was inspired by “Marie Antoinette[‘s] pannier silhouettes. Models wore “slim-fitting bodice(s), enormous skirts and pastoral embroidery” (Macawili). While Marie Antoinette is more commonly known to wear large, decadent dresses, she also enjoyed simple, light white dresses. Simons had also capture her simple rustic side by making the dress very light, “every bit as weightless as the parachute fabric flight suits” (Phelps).
Singer as well as designer, Rihanna was “inspired [by Marie Antoinette] to create her Fenty x Puma capsule collection” and “has continued to use the queen and her extravagant sense of style as a point of reference for her other collections” (Macawili).

“For her second Fenty Puma show”, Rihanna was said to be “inspired by Marie Antoinette at the gym” (Nnadi). In that particular collection Rihanna featured “satin corsets, lace fans, sweatshirts and peals, lace do-rags and just about everything [one] could image the infamous French Queen wearing while on the elliptical” (Nnadi). In an interview with Rihanna believed that “Marie Antoinette might be the most important bad gal muse of all time” because “she just had this regal way about her, and everything she did was big” (Nnadi).
Marie Antoinette lived very comfortably until the last few years of her life. She is an iconic woman in fashion as well as in pop culture. The reason that her fashion style is still so relevant to many designers is because she was her authentic self throughout her whole life and was confident in herself and her clothing choices. She was a victim of circumstance, of her country going bankrupt, but it is also her very public death that cemented her place within fashion and history. No one had understood her sense of style until only recently showing that she was far ahead of her time in what is fashionable. Her ideas shape much of today’s current styles which is evident with designers constantly bringing her styles back.