“Let them eat cake.” Marie Antoinette may or may not have said those words, but they’ve lived on long after her death on the guillotine, in part because we lack for other historical examples of young women delivering a solid clapback. It’s not clear that Karen Walker, who drew on Marie Antoinette for inspiration this season, is any fan of cosseted monarchy; what was clear, seeing the designer’s collection today, is that she likes a girl with attitude. Her mash-up of rococo aesthetics and B-girl vibes was inspired insofar as it located the common spirit between a shade queen (literally!) and tough-talking female plebes.
Many of the clothes here came off as pieces that might have been created for a bunch of ’90s-era B-girls storming Versailles. Marie Antoinette’s wardrobe ripped up and mined for parts: the ruffled sleeves applied to a baseball jacket, the bloomers made into short shorts, taffeta gowns reworked into frilly tanks and rompers. For all the oh-so-feminine details in this outing, the vibe was decidedly sporty, with Walker working for the most part in plainspoken fabrics like cotton, seersucker, twill, and denim. Even the taffeta was of nylon, not silk. She also punctuated her looks with graphic tees and sweatshirts that riffed on the Sex Pistols’s famous poster for their single “God Save the Queen.” If you were in any doubt as to whether Walker’s heart was with the common man or the monarchy, those pieces settled the question. In this collection, it’s Marie Antoinette’s cake the proletarians are eating.
