JULIEN FOURNIE COUTURE FALL 2024
Julien Fournié Haute Couture FW24 / Fall Winter 2024-2025 during Paris Fashion Week presents collection LAST QUEEN at GRÉVIN WAX MUSEUM on Tuesday, June 25, 2024. Julien Fournié pays tribute to Marie-Antoinette, the last queen of France, at the Paris-based Musée Grévin. He is the undisputed initiator of all haute couture. “Whatever one thinks of her role in history,” says Julien Fournié, “Marie-Antoinette was a model of style for all the courts of Europe. He has started this movement from the beginning of fashion: preferring new things to things that have always been considered beautiful.”
Contacted by the management of the Grévin Museum to create a garment for a bust of Marie-Antoinette “in her full glory”. Julien Fournié wanted to restore the splendor of her life at Versailles and make a statement about herself as a fashion icon, a status that the last queen of France earned over two centuries as the first true influencer. To accompany the Julien Fournié Haute Couture Fall Winter 2024-2025 show, the French couturier also presented six looks inspired by the codes of the legendary Marie-Antoinette, rejected in today’s haute couture pieces featuring the work of the finest craftsmen. Of course this includes corsets and ballgowns with large volumes, but it also looks seductive with masculine suits in feminine silhouettes.
The first look featured, beneath a long raincoat in plum-colored silk, embroidered with a dark silver plant motif, an ensemble made entirely of saddle-style leather, in a variety of Marie-Antoinette pastels. This tracksuit also features a fleur-de-lis accent on the trousers, and a flat bow ornament on the bustier. A leather crown with medallions and royal greaves complete the outfit. Accessories also have an important place in the Julien Fournié Haute Couture FW24 collection: “ex voto” earrings and brooches, the brand’s monogrammed tote bags in lenticular canvas, and new “big bang” handbags in soft 18th-century colors.
3-piece trouser suit, prince of wales wool cut in bright colors, finished with purple embroidery. Paired with a lavalliere tie silk blouse and a bicorn hat, decorated with feather arrows and an “incroyables” style brooch, a “boyish” blue jacket, embroidered with silver, over a short silk and lurex nightgown, exposed the legs’ full length barely covered with sheer “nude” leggings embroidered with royal jewels. A wide embroidered ball gown swirls and opens, under a matching “merveilleuse” hat, a mix of peonies, soft pinks and sweetbriar on several layers of precious sheer fabric to mark the diversity and universality of Marie-Antoinette’s style, a floral bustier in shades canary yellow embellished with roses and matching jewels top, giant skirt in matching tulle on an ebony body toby momoh, Julien Fournié muse.
The final look in the Julien Fournié Haute Couture FW24 collection reinterprets embroidered elements from the legend surrounding the last queen of France: shepherdess, cake lover, mother in love with her son, and playing with her coat of arms in tattoo-style Asian anime colors. They rocked a “gothic rockabilly” look combined with black jackets embroidered with black crystals with crater collars and split basques.
The highlight of the Julien Fournié Haute Couture Fall Winter 2024-2025 show was revealed only at the end: the magnificent court costume of queen Marie-Antoinette included a bodice decorated with embroidered ribbons, a petticoat, an overskirt, ruffled sleeves, in triple bright white silk organza, decorated with sparkling embroidery in various shades of silver and lunar gold, is reminiscent of the queen’s favorite musical instrument, symbols of French royalty and Versailles motifs. Ribbons, feathers and pearls enlivened her hair, topped with a glittering galleon with an embroidered sail displaying the symbols of the king of France. Julien Fournié also wants to return a replica of the famous necklace from the “affair” to the French queen that Marie-Antoinette never actually wore…
This new statue of Queen Marie-Antoinette now stands among the permanent collection of the wax museum, in the coupe di Grévin, which has been bringing together the character of “Grévin fashion” since 2014. From June 28 to September 1, 2024, six looks from Julien Fournié’s “last queen” haute couture collection will remain on display in the same location so that a wider audience can admire the knowledge of haute couture up close and in complete freedom. “I am thrilled to make this luxury accessible to a popular audience that craves fashion culture,” rejoices Julien Fournié, “especially at a time when Paris welcomes the world to welcome the Olympic games.”
Images courtsey of Julien Fournie