Betwixt The Sheets: The History of Sex, Scandal & Society

Get Ready With Marie Antoinette

September 22, 2026

AI Summary

5 min read

In the late 1770s, Marie Antoinette’s hairdresser, Monsieur Léonard Autié, built her a hairstyle that stood sixty centimeters from chin to crown—tall enough that ladies riding in carriages had to climb out “like Frankenstein’s monster” to avoid wrecking it. The style, called a pouf, was set with animal-fat pomatum, dusted with starchy powder, and could include miniature gardens, cherry trees, or even a model ship. One woman at the Paris Opera knocked her entire headpiece into the orchestra pit. The queen herself went through 7,000 livres’ worth of hair supplies in a single year. This was not vanity for its own sake. It was a system of communication, status, and survival inside a court where every ribbon and gesture carried political weight.

The Morning Ritual: Two and a Half Hours of Etiquette

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What you'll learn

1 (05:16) **Why Marie Antoinette Resonates Today** - Guest Casta Hex explains her personal connection to the Queen as a misunderstood, persecuted figure.
2 (07:54) **The Makeup Ritual: White Face and Liquid Rouge** - Step-by-step breakdown of 18th-century cosmetics and their ingredients.
3 (09:32) **The Dressing Ritual: A Two-and-a-Half Hour Ordeal** - How the complex etiquette of Versailles turned getting dressed into a political performance.
4 (10:55) **The Hair: Poofs, Hedgehogs, and 60cm Towers** - How hair became a canvas for political and personal expression, and a physical burden.
5 (17:05) **The Shift: The Unseen Foundation** - Why the linen undergarment was the most important piece in the wardrobe.
6 (22:16) **The Stays: Busting the Corset Myth** - How 18th-century corsetry actually worked and why the fainting narrative is wrong.
7 (26:40) **Stockings, Garters, and Shoes** - The accessories that completed the lower half of the ensemble.

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Show Notes

Marie Antoinette famously spent quite a lot of money and time on her outfits and make-up. But what would it feel like to actually wear it?

Joining Kate in this episode is the amazing Casta Hex, historical drag queen, embroiderer and textiles artist for film and TV. Casta creates all her costumes using period accurate fabrics and techniques.

Layer by layer, they explore how to get ready like Marie Antoinette.

This episode was edited by Natasha Hughes. It was produced by Sophie Gee, McKenna Fernandez and Georgie Turner. The senior producer was Freddy Chick.

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All music from Epidemic Sounds.

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