Tea at Trianon: Old Hairstyles, Updated

John Wilson Croker on Marie-Antoinette

"We have followed the history of Marie Antoinette with the greatest diligence and scrupulosity. We have lived in those times. We have talked with some of her friends and some of her enemies; we have read, certainly not all, but hundreds of the libels written against her; and we have, in short, examined her life with– if we may be allowed to say so of ourselves– something of the accuracy of contemporaries, the diligence of inquirers, and the impartiality of historians, all combined; and we feel it our duty to declare, in as a solemn a manner as literature admits of, our well-matured opinion that every reproach against the morals of the queen was a gross calumny– that she was, as we have said, one of the purest of human beings."

~from History of the Guillotine by John Wilson Croker, 1844

Edmund Burke on Marie-Antoinette

"It is now sixteen or seventeen years since I saw the queen of France, then dauphiness, at Versailles; and surely there never lighted on this orb, which she hardly seemed to touch, a more delightful vision. I saw her just above the horizon, decorating and cheering the elevated sphere she had just begun to move in, glittering like a morning star full of life and splendor and joy. Oh, what a revolution....Little did I dream that I should have lived to see such disasters fall upon her, in a nation of gallant men, in a nation of men of honor and of cavaliers! I thought ten thousand swords must have leaped from their scabbards, to avenge even a look which threatened her with insult. But the age of chivalry is gone; that of sophisters, economists, and calculators has succeeded...."

~Edmund Burke, October 1790

Thursday, October 18, 2018

Old Hairstyles, Updated

From the Trianon Health and Beauty Blog:

From The Talko:

French Queen, Marie Antoinette may have worn a crown, but she was known mostly for her big pouf hair. She had hired Leonard Autie to do something extravagant with her weave one day. After hours of separating her hair and adding accessories, like white ostrich plumes, he had fastened her hair with a bow of pink ribbon, and that’s how her iconic pouf was born. But these days, women don’t have that kind of help or the time to spend hours crafting such a royal hairdo. We don’t know if Marie Antoinette used lard to keep her pouf from falling apart., but it was a common precursor to hair gel in the 1700s and a definite "no way" for today’s modern girl. (Read more.)