Not every one of Marie Antoinette's outfits had been a great success. For example, in 1780, a simple, loose, comfortable dress with billowing sleeves, inspired by the Caribbean, was viciously criticized.
"She dresses like a servant."
"If Louis XIV saw his great-grandson's wife wearing clothes and an apron like a village girl, he would be utterly shocked."
Even the material was criticized, because it was English-made muslin.
Originally, this style of dress had been limited to only a few people—the Queen's so-called inner circle. But in 1783, the Queen wore it while having her favorite female painter paint her portrait. The moment the portrait was exhibited at the Salon, it caused an uproar. The painter had no choice but to take it down and replace it with a painting titled "The Queen and the Roses." The Queen, meanwhile, continued to do as she pleased, wearing that dress back and forth to Trianon Palace.
Across the Channel, the scene was entirely different. Led by the Duchess of Devonshire, women from fifteen to fifty all wore this loose dress, with slight alterations: the neckline was not as low as in France, and it had two layers of lapels tied together with a bow.
Marie Antoinette had once told a jailer's daughter, "I am the King's wife and the mother of the heir. Search my conscience—as a mother and a wife, I am from France. I will never see Austria again. Whether I am happy or not, I can only remain in France. Only if you love me can I be happy."
She truly had done as she said and never returned to Austria, even though her carriage had once come very close to it.
Josephine was very good at little tricks. If she had merely pretended to see a ghost so that