With her exuberant youth and pale-skinned beauty, Marie Antoinette continues to be remembered as one of the most stylish and trend-setting women in European history. She arrived in France at a time of extreme fashion extravagance among the aristocracy – when bigger was always better – and she indulged in the massive hoop dresses and long-trained gowns from the most famous fashion houses of Paris. It was also the era of the “Belle Poule” – the infamous hairstyle that was piled mile-high on the head and lined with fruit, toys and feathers – which Marie Antoinette cultivated to an extreme degree. Yet later, Marie Antoinette also ushered in a major fashion shift, turning France towards a period of simpler, more free-flowing and natural dress that presaged a time of tremendous change.
For Coppola, the costumes for MARIE ANTOINETTE were always a central part of her bold vision for the film’s design. She knew she would need a designer who possessed both an historical understanding of 18th Century styles – and the unbridled creativity to give them a distinctly modern flair.
That person was clearly Milena Canonero. A two-time Academy Award® winner for CHARIOTS OF FIRE and BARRY LYNDON as well the recipient of five additional nominations, Canonero is one of today’s most sought after costume designers. She quickly developed a deep affinity for what Coppola was trying to do with this unconventional take on a film about the past. “Sofia is a bit like me in that she is most interested in the feelings that a costume gives to the audience,” says Canonero. “So some of our work in MARIE ANTOINETTE is symbolic, some of it is stylish and some of it is psychological. There is always a reason for a particular texture or color.”
As soon as she came aboard, Coppola presented Canonero with a strong basis for her work. “When I first met with Sofia, she had already been doing several months of research in France and she told me about her ideas about the macaroon colors – the bolds pinks, the gold yellows, the pistachio greens,” recalls Canonero. “So we started with that as an inspiration and then we moved into more graphic stripes and florals.”
She continues: “Sofia didn’t want the film to have the expected look of the period. This is not a classic vision of Marie Antoinette but Sofia’s personal vision of her. The film is a very modern look at her inner experience and therefore the clothes had to respect that kind of language. We took the essence of how things were and stylized them. We wanted more warmth and humanity to come through, so the clothes had to have at the same time a kind of richness and a simplicity – a contemporary vision.”
“So many of our costumes were in the framework of the song ‘I Want Candy,’” says Canonero. “We chose colors and textures that remind you of things you would want to eat. We go from very pale and soft to more shocking. You can say we were very influenced by the period but we don’t present a classical vision. It’s more of a fashion statement. At times, it was very rock and roll.”
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