20 years ago, Sofia Coppola’s third feature film Marie Antoinette debuted at the Cannes Film Festival, complete with dazzling antique diamond jewels worth $4 million. Find out how they made it onto the silver screen below.
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With a milestone anniversary, a new book by Sofia Coppola on the making of the film, and a documentary about its creation all on the way this year, Marie Antoinette is back in the cultural spotlight once more – as are its dazzling antique jewels.
Apparently, it all began with a pair of beguiling 19th-century crescent moon and star chandelier earrings with 25-carats of diamonds.
“They are the earrings that started the conversation with Sofia [Coppola] about Marie Antoinette,” says Rebecca Selva, Chief Creative Officer at Fred Leighton, who curated the antique diamonds worth $4 million seen in the period drama starring Kirsten Dunst.
Selva is no stranger when it comes to furnishing stars of the big and small screen in fabulous jewels, having also dressed Sarah Jessica Parker as Carrie Bradshaw for the Sex and the City shows and movies, plus in its latest outing, And Just Like That. She also worked with SATC’s costume designer Patricia Field to bejewel Meryl Streep as Miranda Priestly in 2006’s The Devil Wears Prada, with designer Jaqueline Durran on Greta Gerwig’s 2019 adaptation of Little Women, and with megastar Julianne Moore for the 2025 TV drama Sirens.
Referring to her experience on Marie Antoinette as “one of the highlights of my career,” Selva’s pre-existing relationships proved vital to the project: “working with Sofia for her red-carpet appearances, she became familiar with our collection because Kirsten wore many Fred Leighton pieces, mostly antique pieces.”
“Many 18th-century jewels did not survive, but they have the magic and the fantasy that she [Coppola] wanted,” adds Selva, of the dramatic chandelier earrings that Dunst sports in the film. All of Selva’s selections had to complement dazzling costumes designed by celebrated Oscar-winner Milena Canonero. “I looked at [French Rococo artists] Watteau, Fragonard,” says Selva. “This is a young queen; she did have a lot of fantasy. She loved the countryside, she loved nature.”
The celestial jewels had to straddle two worlds. First, a hedonistic masquerade ball, blasting Siouxsie and the Banshees, then the coronation, illustrating Coppola’s intoxicating mix of ‘80s romanticism and 18th-century Versailles. To achieve her fantastical vision, Coppola was given unprecedented access to film at the Palace, including the Petit Trianon château, the Queen’s bedchamber, the landscaped grounds and the infamous Hall of Mirrors.
Most recently, the earrings were loaned to London’s Victoria & Albert Museum for its sold-out ‘Marie Antoinette Style’ exhibition, which celebrated the enduring appeal of the doomed monarch over 250 years, including the boundary-pushing 2006 portrayal.
“It was such a rock n’ roll-infused confection that was so unexpected,” says Selva of Coppola’s 20-year-old masterpiece. “It was ahead of its time.”
This interview originally appeared in Issue 16 of Something About Rocks. There’s still time to get your copy here.
