During the American Revolutionary War (1775-1783), France became a crucial ally to the colonies, providing naval power, among other forms of aid.
To commemorate the 1778 victory of a French frigate, Belle Poule, over an English ship (its name doesn’t matter, the loser), French noblewomen, along with the Fashion It Queen herself, Marie Antoinette, began donning what is arguably one of history’s most curious trends: À la Belle Poule.
The Fashion Historian | a satirical image of the hairstyle.
Pouf portraits from top left: 1. Marie-Thérèse Louise of Savoy, Princesse de Lamballe; 2. The inventor of the À la Belle Poule and famous French hairdresser of the day, Léonard Autie, with a client; 3. Queen Charlotte; 4. Queen Marie Antoinette.
As if big, pomaded, curled, stretched, and powdered hair wasn’t enough—
—they go and add a model of a ship on top of it!
Sported as a patriotic symbol, the À la Belle Poule would nevertheless become gossip fuel for the hatred and resentment of the allegedly extravagant Queen Marie Antoinette, a resentment added to a host of others, which would eventually culminate in the bloody French Revolution.
The À la Belle Poule hairstyle may have even spawned the idea for Jean Paul Gaultier’s Beaded Boat Hat, created for his Haute Couture Spring/Summer 1998 runway show
fabulous
and then later reimagined by Ludovic de Saint Sernin and the JPG team as a shipwreck in the Spring 2025 Haute Couture collection.
also fabulous
The collection itself was called, well, Shipwreck (“Le Naufrage”).
On a much cuter, less tragic note, the À la Belle Poule was perhaps the inspiration for Deborah Nourse Lattimore’s whimsically fashionable children’s book, The Lady with the Ship on Her Head (1990).
At my big age, even I still enjoyed it.
…
The story’s main character, Madame Pompenstance, happens to live in a French-inspired kingdom sans the notion of a hairstyle like the À la Belle Poule.
After years of trying, the Madame wants to finally win a medal for the Best Headdress at the King’s annual Fancy Dress Ball, which will be held later that day.
So, wishing to clear her head and come up with a good idea for a headdress, she visits the beach. While bending over to inspect a shell she might like to add to her poufy coiffure, she inadvertently scoops up a tiny little miniature boat, complete with a tiny little miniature crew who think they’re still at sea.
Hilarity ensues.
…
What I enjoyed just as much as the cute story were the colorful, ornate illustrations of ladies’ brocade, patterned dresses and the gilded borders around the pages.
(That last lady would make a great influencer…)
TikTok / Chidi Tiffany
I won’t spoil the ending, but it does end well.
And speaking of endings…
Queen Marie Antoinette may have met a cruel one. And the À la Belle Poule might have gone out of style, except maybe in high fashion. But there’s at least one thing that never gets beheaded or old:
