About the Project:
I was commissioned to make a series of wigs for the “Marie Antoinette Style” exhibition at the Victoria and Albert Museum which opened on 20th September 2025 and runs until 22nd March 2026. The wigs featured on this page were four of twenty-four I made and were coined the “Moschino Pastel Wigs”.
The brief for this style was to mimic some extravagant wigs that adorned the catwalk during the fashion brand Moschino’s Fall/Winter 2020 (AW20) ready-to-wear collection, designed by then-Creative Director Jeremy Scott. The collection offered a satirical, modern take on the extravagance of the 18th-century French court, contrasting the opulence of Versailles with contemporary fashion elements.
The four wigs were all made from colourful crinoline: blue; hot pink; pale yellow and rose pink. They measured about 470mm in height from the top of the head of the mannequin and couldn’t be any taller due to restrictions in the height of the display area.
The below left image shows one of the posters advertising the Marie Antoinette Style exhibition, which shows three models wearing the dresses that accompany the hot pink, pale yellow and rose pink wigs in the exhibition.
“Let them eat cake” is a quote famously, though falsely, attributed to Marie Antoinette.
It is the traditional translation of the French phrase “Qu’ils mangent de la brioche”, said to have been spoken in the 18th century by “a great princess” upon being told that the peasants had no bread. Although the phrase is conventionally attributed to Marie Antoinette, there is no evidence that she ever uttered it. The phrase can actually be traced back to Jean-Jacques Rousseau’s Confessions in 1765, 24 years prior to the French Revolution, and when Antoinette was nine years old and had never been to France. The phrase was not attributed to Antoinette until decades after her death.
The designer and founder of Moschino, Franco Moschino, first drew inspiration from the 18th century with confection-like gowns. During Milan Fashion Week in February of 202, the creative director of Moschino, Jeremy Scott, designed and released the brand’s Autumn/Winter 2020-2021 collection. The collection was a maximalist, tongue-in-cheek ode to the infamous French queen’s extravagant style, reimagined for the modern day with a mix of historical references, pop culture, and contemporary materials. Models strutted down the runway in paniered silhouettes, bodices, intricate trimmings, and grand pastel-hued hairstyles. The dresses replicated the look of elaborate, frosted desserts, with pastel-colored tiers, whipped “icing” details, and sugary decorative roses.
These wigs are all featured in the final section of the exhibition which displays modern and contemporary reinterpretations of her style through fashion, film, and art.
About:
- The wigs were made to fit onto 3D printed “Marie” mannequin heads.
- The wigs were constructed onto frames made of Rigilene boning.
- Dress netting was used to create a base layer upon which to attach the crinoline.
- They were made from hot pink, blue, rose pink and pale yellow crinoline, built up in many layers and shaped using stitches to match the hairstyle in reference images I was given of the Moschino catwalk show.
More details about the project as a whole and how I made these wigs can soon be read in a blog post on my website here.
The exhibition is currently touring and will next be on display at The Yokohama Museum of Art in Japan from August 1st – November 23rd 2026.