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 wig featured on this page was one of twenty-four I made and was coined the “Grace Kelly Wig”.
The brief for this style was to mimic the hairstyle worn by the actress Grace Kelly in the 1955 Alfred Hitchcock film, To Catch a Thief. In the movie, the actress wore a famous opulent golden ballgown for the masquerade ball scene in the film. The iconic costume was a showstopper, and reproductions and sketches of it are still sought after by collectors. The hairstyle she wore with the costume was not her natural hair, but a golden wig that matched the striking gown.
The ball gown was designed by renowned Hollywood costume designer Edith Head, who won an Academy Award for her work on the film. The dress was crafted from gold lamé fabric and featured a voluminous hoop skirt, a sweetheart neckline, and matching long, over-the-elbow gloves. The gown was inspired by the court of Marie Antoinette. The ensemble was completed with a golden mask and a headpiece decorated with fabric birds, so a golden bird was also requested to sit on top of the wig which I made from golden fabric with a card inner to give it structure (see below left image).
There was some debate over what colour crinoline would work best to depict this style. I started off making this wig in champagne-coloured crinoline, but this was altered to “golden” crinoline by the curators (none of the colours available matched the opulent gold of the dress perfectly). The curators decided last minute that they wanted to remove some of the wigs from the exhibition so that it felt more ‘fashion’ in the contemporary section, as they didn’t want them to distract from the objects. If you look closely in the below photograph, on the top level of this section you can see the Grace Kelly left one in from the left with a wig-less head.
I have been informed that this wig (plus a few others that were also not displayed) will definitely be used throughout the tour which lasts until 2029 – with 6 venues, so I am delighted to hear that the wigs will be delighting people for a few years yet! This leaves creative flexibility for the curators with the available wigs during the touring venues, as loans will be rotated over this period.
Unfortunately this was one of the wigs I neglected to photograph once completed before it left my studio, so the only images I have of it are during the last pinning before it was fixed with stitches, plus one quick snap I got of it on the mannequin with the dress on the day I delivered this one directly to the museum (seen a few images above on the right). I will endeavour to get some images of this wig in 360 degrees before it goes off on tour.
About:
- The wig was made to fit onto abstract fibreglass mannequin head.
- The wig was constructed onto a frame made of Rigilene boning.
- A golden bird was made from fabric with stitching detail to sit on top of the wig.
- The wig was created using “gold” crinoline.
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.