It’s tough to tell the story of Marie Antoinette without highlighting her impact on French fashion. In “Marie Antoinette” on PBS, you’ll be treated to a refreshing, feminist take on the historical figure’s transformation from teen dauphine to France’s last queen. Although she struggles to find her place amid the rivalries of Versailles, the drama of court life is no match for her show-stopping style.

To create dozens of luminous dresses for Marie Antoinette (Emilia Schüle), costume designers Madeline Fontaine and Marie Frémont pulled inspiration from both historical and modern sources. Their costumes help illustrate the story of a queen who simultaneously embraced opulence and bucked tradition through her royal wardrobe.

Across all eight episodes, Marie Antoinette’s dresses are a feast for the eyes. But how well do you know fashion fact from fiction? Take a peek behind the scenes to learn how the on-screen styles and major fashion players in “Marie Antoinette” stack up against their real 18th-century counterparts.

At just 14 years old, the Austrian archduchess married Louis XVI wearing an enormous diamond-encrusted court dress made of silver cloth. But the historical costume you’ll see in this scene in “Marie Antoinette” isn’t as broad side-to-side as it could have been.

As Frémont explained in an interview with Tatler, “We chose for it not to be as big as it was in reality, because we thought that for our modern eyes it would be too much.”

As a newly minted member of the French royal family, Marie Antoinette was subject to a tradition known as the levee. According to this custom, specific garments could only be handled by certain members of the court. So, getting dressed in the morning involved much fanfare and little privacy.

Unsurprisingly, Marie Antoinette eventually did away with this formal routine.

But what type of clothing did the Queen wear, exactly?

The 18th-century French royal wardrobe involved many layers, starting with a cotton or linen chemise. Dresses got their structure thanks to panniers — short hoop skirts that added volume around the hips.

Worn on top of those undergarments, the go-to gown for a French queen was the robe à la française — a luxurious silk garment with large box pleats at the back that swept across the floor. The bodice was secured at the front to a triangular piece called a stomacher, which was often ornamented with ribbons, bows, and even jewelry. Lace frills at the sleeve cuffs finished off the look.

Never one to play it safe, though, Queen Marie Antoinette embraced and set plenty of other trends during her reign.

It took a village to bring so many opulent 18th-century-inspired looks to life for “Marie Antoinette” — including two costume designers, a 65-person costume department, and the House of Dior.

But who designed the clothes for Marie Antoinette in real life?

It was the talented Rose Bertin, a marchande de modes or fashion merchant, who catapulted from modest means to serve a court clientele. When Bertin’s creativity caught Marie Antoinette’s attention, she quickly became the Queen’s trusted modiste and so-called “Minister of Style.”

The two women bonded over their shared passion and collaborated on many of Marie Antoinette’s dresses over the years.

Parents don’t always understand the new fashions their children wear — even among royal families. In “Marie Antoinette,” the queen sends her mother, Empress Maria Theresa, a portrait featuring a new dress that sparks a curious reaction.

But the Empress wasn’t the only one who found the dress controversial at the time. An on-canvas likeness of Marie Antoinette, painted by Elisabeth Louise Vigée Le Brun, inspired this on-screen moment.

For the portrait, the Queen wore what became known as the chemise à la reine — in other words, the queen’s undershirt! Made out of airy, imported cotton muslin, it more closely resembled 18th-century undergarments than the heavy French silk gowns usually worn on top of them. 

The painting wasn’t on display for long, though. It was promptly swapped out for a more traditional piece by the same artist, featuring Marie Antoinette wearing a robe à la française, of course.

Click through the image gallery to see how the show’s costume designers reimagined the Queen of Fashion’s iconic wardrobe for today’s viewers. Then watch the splendor of “Marie Antoinette” unfold on PBS.