Book Reviews: Fashion and Versailles by Laurence Benaïm

The indisputable birthplace of fashion, Versailles’s runway was its exalted halls and antechambers. An unparalleled seat of power and seduction, it is within its walls that the world’s first dress codes were established – changing at the whim of its queens and cabal of royal mistresses.

Madame de Montespan debuted the stylish ‘innocente’ gown, a cunning confection to camouflage pregnancy. A trendsetting Marie Antoinette pioneered the pouf and turned pastels into the palette du jour– elevating fashion to an artform one craze at a time.

From the 1950s ‘Neo-Trianon’ trend, to Karl Lagerfeld’s 2013 ‘Ghetto-royale’ cruise collection of crinoline dresses and brocade jackets (launched against the backdrop of the château’s gardens), Versailles’s daring couture has offered an inexhaustible source of inspiration for generations of designers and artists. Step into the bastion of excess and elegance which continues to set the fashion agenda today…

Fashion and Versailles by Laurence Benaïm, list price £45, published by Flammarion

From France Today magazine

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