What Marie-Antoinette would look like with plastic surgery

© 2010 AFP - What would a plastic surgeon do with executed queen of France Marie-Antoinette if she were alive today? The answer depends on whether she would prefer the French, American or Russian look.

French designer Jean-Charles de Castelbajac watches one of his three sculptures. Photo : AFP

French fashion designer Jean-Charles de Castelbajac is displaying the three resulting busts at a Parisian art gallery as part of an exhibition entitled "Tyranny of Beauty."

It took more than three months to complete the white plaster heads, complete with wigs and make up courtesy of artists from the world of fashion, says De Castelbajac.

The Austrian-born duchess's French version is the most recognisable: the double chin is gone, the cheeks are slightly sunken, the eyes barely changed. The nose and mouth are untouched.

"This is the closest to the original," says De Castelbajac.

The American version has had the nose straightened, the lips have been botoxed, the cheekbones accented, while the Russian version is barely recognisable from the original.

"This customer accepts many more changes," says De Castelbajac: the cheekbones are exaggerated and the mouth is even more full.

The archetype of Marie-Antoinette came from De Castelbajac's mother's house, where the fashion designer deemed her "the height of French sophistication."

He describes the exhibition as "a kind of pop archaeology" to "disembody Marie-Antoinette and turn her into a 21st century woman."