Fashion Icon Sisi: The Empress' Trends
Empress Elisabeth of Austria, better known as Sisi, not only ruled an empire but also left a lasting mark on the fashion world.
Sisi was considered the most beautiful woman of her time and is still admired worldwide today - 125 years after her tragic death in 1898. The myth surrounding the empress also gained significant popularity through the "Sissy" films with Romy Schneider and Karlheinz Böhm. The woman on the side of Emperor Franz Joseph I was very particular about her appearance and wardrobe.
From the age of 30, she no longer allowed herself to be photographed. This is how she created her image of eternal youth and beauty. She skilfully hid her face from the paparazzi with the help of fans and parasols. From then on, she only had portraits taken, although the paintings always show her with a youthful face. The Empress did a lot of sport, which was highly unusual for a woman of her rank at the time and caused quite a stir. Sisi was also very free-spirited. Sometimes her hairdresser and close confidante Franziska Feifalik would slip into the role of the Empress as a double so that she could travel undetected to places where she was less well known.
Sisi attached great importance to elegant cuts and beautifully placed seams. Her dresses were made of expensive fabrics and were very figure-hugging. Almost all the pieces had ruffles and pleats in the bodice. This concealed her broad shoulders and large bust.
The gorgeous dresses
The empress wore wide, floor-length dresses over a petticoat or crinoline. They were richly decorated with ruffles, lace and embroidery. When fully dressed, her wardrobe weighed around 25 kg. Sisi was involved in the designs of her dresses. Thus, she did not only follow the trends from Paris but also went other ways with fashion and had her wardrobe made according to her ideas. It was important to her that the skirts hugged the hips in a figure-hugging way. At the same time, the feet had to be free at the bottom and the skirts had to be wide-cut to allow enough freedom of movement on long walks.
One of her most famous dresses is the star dress. It was designed by the Parisian couturier Charles Frederic Worth. The painting by Franz Xaver Winterhalter shows the 28-year-old empress with diamond stars in her hair and this dress. Sisi always preferred plain colours. After the suicide of her son Crown Prince Rudolf (1858-1889), she wore only black as a sign of mourning.
The lingerie
The culotte is a pair of knee-length, somewhat plump pants made of white linen, open at the crotch. To complement it, the empress wore a white chemisette, also made of linen. It conformed to the shape of the body and was worn directly against the skin. The two pieces served as the basis for the corset. Since corsets were very long at the time, women found it difficult to bend over. The open crotch of the culotte made going to the toilet easier.
The corset
In Sisi's wardrobe, the corset was a very striking piece. She used it to shape herself into a wasp waist, the circumference of which was only about 50 cm. It was always important to her to look slim. Lacing her corset could take up to three hours. The corset accompanied the beautiful ruler until her death in Geneva on 10 September 1898. Shortly before she boarded the ferry to Territet, an unknown man bumped into her and pushed her to the ground. On the ferry, Sisi complained of feeling unwell. When the corset was opened, a stab wound in her chest was revealed and blood came out. Her murderer Luigi Lucheni originally wanted to kill someone else. Sisi was a random victim.
The equestrian fashion
Sisi was an icon of fashion and horsemanship. She rode the heaviest hunts in England and Ireland. She showed that fashion could not only be ostentatious but also relaxed and stylish. Her riding dresses were made of fine fabrics and fur trim. When it came to colours, she preferred black, grey, dark blue and dark green. She wore a small hat and gloves made of light deerskin. Her riding crops were decorated with precious stones, ivory and small portraits of her husband. It was always important to Sisi to look elegant and stylish in the side saddle. The dresses were not allowed to have the slightest wrinkle.
The accessories
The empress rounded off her outfits with magnificent jewellery and used small details to set the scene for her own style. Diamond-studded brooches and earrings, tiaras and hair ornaments were just some of the empress's royal accessories. Over her shoulders, she liked to drape a black silk cape with an elaborately embroidered sequined top. The initial "E" was embroidered on the label sewn into the lining. Her tops were also fond of adorning a stand-up collar made of lace.
Sisi made the waist belt en vogue. One of her favourite pieces was a black belt made of rep with a black lacquered buckle in the shape of a metal horseshoe. This is now in the collection of Schönbrunn Palace.
The empress wore gloves, but she also liked to take them off sometimes. Thus there was an incident at one of her first gala dinners when Sisi showed her own will. When the food was served, the Empress took off her gloves. Immediately the Archduchess sent a lady-in-waiting to her, who told her that according to the rules, an empress was not allowed to dine without gloves. Sisi replied resolutely, without putting her gloves back on: "From now on this will be the rule."
There was also a court tradition for shoes. The empress had to put on a new pair of shoes every day and give away her worn shoes to lower-ranking ladies. These included black satin shoes or white, lace-trimmed silk ankle boots.
