20 Years Later, Sofia Coppola’s Marie Antoinette Is Still Fashion’s Forever Favorite

3 min read

Rococo candy-colored bows and devout coquettish style aside, it’s been a big year for Marie Antoinette. The tour de force kicked off last fall, when the V&A Museum in London held its comprehensive “Marie Antoinette Style” exhibition that ran through spring 2026. Fast forward and Sofia Coppola’s 2006 film Marie Antoinette is now celebrating its 20th anniversary. With that comes a major museum exhibition in Versailles, a 4K theatrical re-release, a companion book, and the new accompanying documentary, Making Marie Antoinette, out in theaters October 23.

Making Marie Antoinette explores the unseen side of the film. Sofia Coppola’s mother, acclaimed documentarian Eleanor Coppola, accompanied her on set, capturing approximately 80 hours of footage that was then distilled down and edited to show behind-the-scenes moments and the craft behind the visual journey. Take, for example, bits of costume designer Milena Canonero working, or funny moments of the stars Kirsten Dunst and Jason Schwartzman at Versailles, where the cast was given unprecedented access.

Throughout the documentary, Diane Lane reads from Eleanor’s diaries, reflecting on everything she sees and her relationship with her daughter. The process of putting the documentary together began at the family’s home in Napa during the pandemic, when they opened the boxes of tapes and started watching her footage.

“She loved being on set—she loved Milena’s work and took in all the details of the costumes, the flowers and art departments fabrics, and 18th-century food reproductions,” said Sofia Coppola of the upcoming documentary, in a statement released to the press. “When I was a little kid, I would show her my drawings of girls in princess dresses that she always loved and cheered me on, and this was an extension of that. I hope people that enjoy that film can feel what it was like to be on that set and what it was like to push for a female point of view at a time when that was unusual.”

The original film continues to inspire designers like Sandy Liang as well as fashion fans. Maybe Marie Antoinette was one of the first real fashion influencers, even if she wasn’t recognized for it at the time. She certainly dressed for herself with a strong point of view.

Fans still reference the costumes in their everyday outfits: “Learning Sofia Coppola’s Marie Antoinette costume designs were inspired by a box of pastel-colored Ladurée macaroons confirmed to me I wasn’t crazy for having the urge to eat up all the powdery pink, baby blue, cream colored, and sorbet yellow gowns,” says the fashion collector Gisela Castillo, who regularly wears Marie Antoinette-worthy tiered pink tulle and ruffled tutus, even if she’s just running errands. “20 years later, you can still catch me in Soho downing handfuls of Ladurée macaroons while wearing one of my many rococo Marie Antoinette-inspired outfits. My closet brims with tulle, silk taffeta, crinolines, and petticoats in a variety of pastel colors, all inspired by Sofia’s 18th-century Marie Antoinette fashion revival.”

The anniversary certainly proves the lasting power of the rococo aesthetic through the female gaze: it’s impossible to ignore fashion’s devotion to the girlish bows, pastels, and jewels that the film popularized on-screen 20 years prior. Let them wear tulle.