SECRETS FROM THE SET

MARIE ANTOINETTE

This lavish French-produced BBC series is a modern-day take on the story of Marie Antoinette, ‘a female rebel with a cause’, according to its writer Deborah Davis.

Over eight episodes, German actor Emilia Schüle portrays ‘Toinette’ as a wide-eyed 14year-old girl traumatised by her arrival at the French court in 1770, who gradually grows in confidence to take on the Ancien Régime.

Her transformation takes place in the ornate apartments of Versailles, which were reconstructed over two-and-a-half months in the Bry-sur-Marne studios on the outskirts of Paris because the real palace, built in the 1600s, now looks too clean to pass for the 18th century. However some scenes, including those in the Hall of Mirrors, were shot at Versailles.

While the sets look historically accurate, the clothes were simplified to suit modern tastes.

With a budget of ¤2.5 million, the costume department created 130 costumes from scratch (two of Toinette’s dresses were even made by leading fashion house Dior).

Her towering wigs (right) were created using real hair, each taking over a month to make. Costume designer Marie Frémont studied paintings of the former French queen and real-life inventories of her wardrobe for the show. But history was just the starting point. ‘There’s what we know, what we guess and what we want to show — and sometimes they’re different,’ says Frémont. When Toinette arrives in France, the court is like a cage, represented in the show by the huge hoop skirt (left) that physically traps her.

The one item of the queen’s wardrobe that was totally historically accurate was the corset. ‘It was great preparation for the character because you really suffer,’ says Schüle. ‘They’re very oppressive.’

–Shivani Kochhar