Marie Antoinette's Head

what do you know about Marie Antoinette that she lost her head in the French Revolution and what do you remember about that head most likely her outrageous poofed and powdered hairdos in fact Marie Antoinette has remained a cultural icon for centuries because of the daring style she brought to 18th century France and for the better part of the Queen's reign one man was entrusted with the responsibility of ensuring that her coiffure was at its most ostentatious best who was this Minister of fashion who wielded such tremendous influence over the Queen Marie Antoinette's head the Royal hairdresser the Queen and the revolution charts the rise of Leonar OTA from humble beginnings as a country barber in the south of france to the inventor of the pouf in the premier hairdresser to the Queen because as everyone knows there's no one closer to a woman than her hairdresser by unearthing a variety of sources from the 18th and 19th centuries including memoirs court documents and archived periodicals author will Bashur tells Lenore's mostly unknown story chronicling his background the role he played in the life of his most famous client and the chaotic history-making world in which he rose to prominence besides his proximity to the Queen Lenore had a fascinating life filled with seduction after all he was the only man in a female dominated court intrigue espionage treason exile and possibly execution [Music] Lenora was born in the medieval town of Pommier in 1751 the son of alexis OTA and Catherine Freneau both domestic servants at an early age Leonor knew he would never find his fortune in the sciences or in government but he was confident that he could take advantage of his two talents charisma and artistic genius greedy for gold and fame he wrote in his memoirs I may very well decide the destiny of my whole life with just a single stroke of my comb Leonor would have been trained in the art of hairdressing in the mid 1760s in Montpellier and Bordeaux where he first practiced his craft but his creative genius was lost on matronly ladies of these provincial cities to find his fame and fortune the young qui fur needed to take Paris by storm having made the long journey from Bordeaux Leonora arrived in Paris on summers evening in 1769 after an arduous day of travelling he was tired he wrote in his journal but one couldn't tell his only luggage was a big bundle of vanity which would not allow him to admit that he had just covered some 120 miles in two weeks on foot Lenoir noticed that Parisian men dressed according to their rank wearing small wigs to which they applied powder men of higher society wore waistcoats with breeches that reached down to their calves stockings were then held up with garters buckled just below the knee men of lower ranks normally dressed in the clothes discarded by the wealthier classes only the cleanliness of the clothes spoke the difference a young man's poverty follows him wherever he goes according to a French proverb but Lenore's rise in the european capital of manners and fashion would hinge on his ability to conform to a certain aesthetic or at least preserve the illusion of it unable to afford powder Lenoir styled his hair and whitened it with a billowing gust of flour with this fine gray waistcoat brushed until it shined and the holds of his tie artistically arranged he pulled his tightly drawn stockings up to show the calves of his legs now he could surely be taken for a gentleman if he wasn't quite there yet he was destined to become one soon enough after all Harris awaited him what Lenoir didn't know however was that hairdressing was highly regulated by the Parisian guild so how could Lenore bypass the master hairdressers of the capital city to answer this we begin with the theory behind the art of coiffure according to the manuals of the time cutting hair was the science of giving natural hair its form by removing irregularities in length and cropping in stages all the while enhancing the face the true art of the hairdresser therefore to practice hairdressing the coiffure would cut the hair according to the clients features and then finished by curling and powdering the professional always male coiffeur would start by combing the entire head of hair to remove any tangles then using his would tortoiseshell or gold comb he would begin at the top of the head in comb one portion or row at a time coming straight down or to the side depending on whether the hair was to be cut straight or angled when the comb was near the end of the hair the hair underneath the comb was cut with half-closed scissors cutting the hair to the desired length was continued with the rest of the hair but the top rows of hair were required to be shorter than the lower rows hairdressing tools were purchased from roaming haberdashers in the 18th century clients included wig makers as well as hairdressers when styling a wig one would follow the same rules that govern natural hair hair had to be taken not to cut the wig too short so that it would completely cover all the natural hair below [Music] after the hair was properly cut one wrap the hair in curling papers heated the packets with curling irons and finished with powder this process required special instruments and materials used in a precise manner first small pieces of paper were cut into triangles preferably using grey paper or blotting paper because they tear easily gathering a small portion of the hair with the comb and holding it with the first two fingers of one hand around the middle the coiffeur would roll the hair and a curl and immediately envelop it with the curling paper this was the loop curl another type of curl was the crepe which was preferable for short hair on top of the head the crepe was created by taking the strand of hair and twisting it in the curling paper to avoid the hole found in the middle of the loop curl once the whole head was covered with rolling papers it was time to use the curling irons the coiffeur used two kinds one was to clip with two flat jaws of equal thickness and the other resembled scissors the irons were heated in the fire the desired temperature was achieved at the iron did not scorch a curling paper or by testing heat near the cheek when ready the curling papers were heated by the iron for a few moments another iron would be heated while curling since the irons did not hold their heat too long with a full head of curling papers it was necessary to heat several irons once the curling papers were cooled they were removed and the locks of curled hair then combed together the coiffeur would gracefully arrange the curls around the forehead and temples if needed the curling iron resembling scissors could reinforce any unwieldly curls [Music] the only task left was to powder the hair the best powder was made of wheat flour and was kept in an iron cup or sheepskin pouch the best goofs were made with long bristles from the top of the heads of geese to powder the coiffeur coated his hands with pomade and lightly waxed the curls then he lightly dipped his puffs in the powder this small quantity was sufficient for dusting the hair and highlighting the cuts in curls for fear that the clients would get powder on their face and in their eyes the coiffeur took precaution of protecting them with a mask generally petite and arranged close to the head the tete de Mouton or Sheepshead style was particularly popular at the time and was characterized by soft curls with little or no height this style can be seen in many of Madame pompadour portraits the tete de Mouton received its name during the reign of Lu the 14th one day when the King was hunting with one of his ladies of the court her hair became disheveled during the chase so he pulled it back and secured it with her garter securing the bed of the king that night as well this traditional style featuring defined twists of curls that were arranged in rows across the front and top of the head was popular throughout Europe and commonly included a pompom or an ornament such as small ribbons pearls jewels flowers or decorative pins styled together this was named a pom pom after Louie the fifteenth's mistress Madame de Pompadour these delicate and demure styles that frame the face were the fashion of the time that is until the no erect Lenore got a start when vaudeville actress Julie nee bear asked him to style her as a fairy for a pantomime one evening Lenore's creation was an outlandish diversion but the means he used and to which he perhaps one day would owe his fame and fortune were rather simple he fastened stars to a circle of extremely fine wire and to this he attached two pieces of the same wire that he fixed in the hair the golden stars seemed to arch themselves as a crown on his fairy's head without any visible attachment from two steps away he wrote my illusion was complete Leonora could not believe Julie's delight when she saw the contraption that he had just erected on her head this petite dancer had received very little praise for her work on the stage up to this time according to the reviews she had been somewhat awkward in her gestures and showed little grace in her motion that very night however things changed for the fairy she became an overnight success and things changed for Lenore two carriages filled with aristocratic ladies lined up in front of the theater to catch a glimpse of his creation soon he was styling the hair of women of the nobility including the Kings new mistress Madame Du Barry and by 1772 he had become the hairstylist of the young de féin Marie Antoinette Lenore often taken for nobility would enter Marie Antoinette's private salon at Versailles soon after her entourage of ladies in waiting dressed her it was through the Queen that Lenore achieved his success and fame but it could also be said that Lenore was indirectly responsible for the very first attacks upon the iconic Queen found in inflammatory pamphlets circulating this early 1775 the attacks were prompted by Lenore's incredible and increasingly fantastical hairstyles concoctions that would reach such a height that it was necessary for ladies to kneel on the carriage floor or hold the towering hair pieces outside the coach windows enroute to gala balls in the Opera noble ladies of the court of Versailles felt obliged to imitate the Queen's new and daring hairstyles despite the danger of becoming burning infernos when they brushed against the candles at the palace chandeliers the young ladies of Paris were also enthralled with the newfangled trends drastically increasing their coiffure expenses and incurring large debts mothers and husbands grumbled family fights ensued and many relationships were irreparably damaged in all the general consensus of the French people was well publicized the Queen was bankrupting all the women of France financially and more the escalation can be tracked to one evening lane or ot unexpectedly received then Princess Marie Antoinette's requests for her signature elaborate coiffure for the Opera winningly it would be a risky endeavor because he was a bit tipsy while he slowly separated the princess's hair attempting to conjure something magical he no doubt was battling the thumping arteries of his temples fortunately panic gave way to inspiration and within an hour his flock of curls was able to hold three white ostrich plumes set on the left side of her head and fastened in the middle of a rosette he had braided with her hair a bow of pink ribbon in the centre of which was a large Ruby held the elaborate creation together Marie Antoinette examined it in silence for a moment the princess appeared somewhat disappointed but this frown lasted only an instant when like a flash her face lit up with delight Oh Lenore it must be over a yard hi Lenore agreed that the arrangement was daring but he ventured that there would be 200 hairstyles higher than hers in Paris by the following evening her subjects long to catch a glimpse of the elaborate hairstyles he created and as he predicted they soon spared no expense to imitate them the fervor spread to all of Europe [Music] and then Marie Antoinette's Milner the celebrated Mademoiselle Burton invented a hairdo called the Kazuko or what is it quoi fear it was composed of three feathers that ladies wore on the back of the head creating a design resembling a question mark and it became the next sensation Lenore was very fond of Mademoiselle Burton often commenting that their fortunes trudged along hand-in-hand like two good sisters but Lenore was jealous in fact Mademoiselle Burton's laurels and praise were beginning to prevent lane or from sleeping at night he needed just one more of those grand ideas one that would overthrow all existing Vogue's not only to win back the favor of the da Fein and assuage his bitterness at Mademoiselle Rose but to keep his name on the tongues of Paris after many sleepless nights Leonor finally came up with a new sensation the poof sentimental it was the spirit of rivalry with Mademoiselle rose that brought these headdresses to such monstrous heights both literally and figuratively the pouf was first worn by Madame the Duchess of Chartres in the month of April 1774 the Duchess's pouf was composed of 14 yards of gauze and numerous plumes waving at the top of a tower Leonor employed to wax and figures as ornaments representing the little duke of vigil a in his nurses arms beside them he placed a parrot pecking at a plate of cherries and reclining at the nurses feet but the waxen figure of a little African boy of whom the Duchess was very far the new poof was quite unprecedented never had anyone dared to create such a hodgepodge even Lenore was a bit frightened to show the absurd conception at first but like most of his creations it caught on swiftly soon afterward one could find the strangest things in the poof's of Paris frivolous women covered their heads with butterflies sentimental women nestled swarms of Cupid's in their hair and the wives of officers wore squadrons perched on their heads melancholic women went so far as to put Crematory urns in their headdresses he was also not uncommon to mix feathers with flowers which were kept fresh in tiny bottles of water hidden in the pouf and the hairstyles continued to rise in height in February 1776 the Queen going to a ball given by the Duchess of Orleans had plumes so high they had to be removed from her coiffeur to get into her carriage she had to leave them behind when she returned to Versailles the next popular pouf the Harrison or the Hedgehog was Lenore's concoction of unpowered hair curled to the tips and rising in tears leaving several strands of curls falling on the neck the hair on the forehead was held up in a high very large clump with hairpins the bouffant style was supported by a ribbon that encircled the entire pouf then came the Saffir Lenore continued to invent new styles each more extravagant than the next some were so high that it appeared that a woman's head was in the middle of her body another incredible creation consisted of a ship sailing on a sea of thick wavy hair it was invented after the naval battle in which the frigate La Belle pool was victorious the ship itself with its masts rigging and guns was imitated in the miniature on the pouf this elaborate creation a celebration of sorts was an overnight success it should be noted however that many such cloths were supported with wired scaffolding and were very heavy also seldom washed in meeting sleep difficult these powdered concoctions were commonly breeding grounds for all types of vermin by the time Queen marie-antoinette had given France its first heir to the throne she was threatened by the increasing loss of her hair at the first indication of this catastrophe Leonor began to tremble along with the hair of Marie Antoinette Leonor would lose his power that supremacy enabling him to open up the hearts of the ladies of Paris and the court as well as their purses so what to do Leonor persuaded the Queen that his new coiffeur el L'Enfant would meet the same enthusiasm as her previous coffers the Queen's beautiful hair fell under Leonor scissors and within two weeks all the ladies of the court had their hair cut short all on phone creating yet a new era in hairdressing while the Queen's of France were always a foreign birth for political reasons Marie Antoinette was a princess from Austria Frances longtime enemy although it was vital for her to appear as French as possible her fashions and hairstyles increasingly alienated her subjects attacks on the Queen's hair were soon followed by damaging accusations ranging from sexual promiscuity to high treason when incest was added to the list the revolutionary court was able to finally make its case to condemn the Queen to death the second volume of will bashers Marie Antoinette trilogy Marie Antoinette's darkest day prisoner number 280 in the concealer begins on the 2nd of August 1793 the day Marie Antoinette was torn from her family's arms and escorted from the temple to the consiga tea a thick walled fortress turned prison it was also known as the waiting room for the guillotine because prisoners only spend a day or two here before their conviction and subsequent execution the ex-queen surely knew her days were numbered but she could not have known that two and a half months would pass before she would finally stand trial and be convicted of the most ungodly charges author basher traces the final days of the prisoner registered only as Widow Cabot number 280 a time that was a cruel mixture of grandeur humiliation terror Marie Antoinette's reign amidst the splendors of the court of Versailles a familiar story but her final imprisonment in a fetid dank dungeon is a little-known coda to a once charmed life her 76 days in this terrifying prison could only be described as the most horrific in the fallen Queen's life vividly recaptured in this richly researched history [Music] Lenoir OTA her celebrated and loyal hairdresser was an exile in Germany when the executioner arrived at Marie Antoinette's prison cell scissors in hanged on that chilly October morning in 1793 he tied her hands behind her back and roughly grasping her hair cut off the iconic locks that Lenore had made so legendary minutes later the executioner would exhibit the severed queen's head to the crazed crowds at the foot of the scaffold nothing but the continuous roar of evil any show could be heard as he held it up victoriously by her hair and so ended the life of Marie Antoinette but not her legacy and influence on the world of fashion Marie Antoinette with the help of monster Leno and Mademoiselle Rose revamped fashion in Paris and in the grand capitals of Europe her stunning glamorous costumes and odd bunk guard pouf hairstyle made her the fashion pioneer of the 18th century the fashion icon in trendsetter of her time also used the yard high boots to tower above her weak incompetent husband louis xvi it was a pure power play in the French kingdom to be sure Marie Antoinette style still inspire artists in designers today Madonna stole the stage at the MTV Video Music Awards in 1990 with an immaculate compare style two decades later Karl Lagerfeld rocked the palace or side with the Chanel crews 2013 collection Marie Antoinette's timeless and playful tone resonated in the pastel colored fringe and frothy lace ruffles and cuffs of the Chanel signature designs but Lagerfeld was not the first to showcase his designs at the Queen's magnificent chateau Marie Antoinette herself would have been delighted by John Galliano's mm Christian do our masquerade and bondage collection it was a smorgasbord of rich silks puffed Ellis ostrich feathers scented flowers a norm crystals and tiny corsets did marie-antoinette establish yourself as a force to be reckoned with as a queen who commanded as much attention as the most dazzling King or any of his pampered mistresses if so the MOG reveled in Galliano have shown us what the trendsetter Marie Antoinette could have shown us on the runways of Versailles Hall of Mirrors if she had lived in our era author will vouchers trilogy is a fresh and insightful look at one of the world's most fascinating and timeless personalities whose sense of style and self-indulgence in many ways purse Aged both the best and worst of our own era Marie Antoinette's head darkest days and world are available on Amazon other online retailers and through the author's website will assure calm you [Music]

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Keywords: #booktrailers, #bookvideo, Marie Antionette, Hairstyles, Fashion, French Revolution, William Bashor

Id: 55wlos70Ipo

Length: 23min 38sec (1418 seconds)

Published: Tue Dec 13 2016