It’s not every day you correlate Empress Elizabeth of Austria with the New York Fashion Week runway, but here we are!

Wes Gordon presented yet another Carolina Herrera collection this New York Fashion Week with a clear emphasis placed on elegance, muted opulence and femininity. Comprised of monochromatic black and white ensembles as well as a refreshing scattering of bold colours and patterns, Gordon has cited the 19th-century Empress Sisi as the inspiration for the collection, saying "Elegance is the mixture of opulence with restraint."

Born in Munich in 1837, Elisabeth Amelie Eugenie was Empress of Austria and Queen of Hungary from her marriage to Emperor Franz Joseph I on 24 April 1854 until her assassination in 1898. Known as Sisi, she was renowned across Europe for her beauty and is often called the most beautiful woman of the whole 19th century. Her arduous daily beauty routine took at least three hours! Sisi was not just known for her incredibly long chestnut brown hair, she was also a fashion trendsetter of her day.

Sisi, much like her obsession with her beauty, was concerned with wearing the very best of the best and, as an Empress, she had it all easily at hand. As she grew older and was seen less in public, her outfits became more sensationalised. Her impact on the general public style-wise was like that of the late Princess Diana! When she attended her brother’s wedding in 1864, her brother-in-law wrote that Sisi was “stunningly beautiful, also the people here acted insane. I have never seen anyone having such an effect before.” In her youth, Sisi followed the fashions of the age, which for many years consisted of cage-crinolined hoop skirts with many petticoats, however, when fashion began to change, she was at the forefront of abandoning the hoop skirt for a tighter and leaner silhouette which accentuated her height and slender physique.

Equestrian portrait of Elisabeth at Possenhofen Castle, age 15, 1853.

While on paper it sounds like Sisi had everything a woman could dream of, the constant picking at her appearance by courtiers and the press had a negative impact on her mental well-being. Today, we would most likely suggest that Sisi suffered from disordered eating, limiting her diet and an unhealthy relationship with tightlacing.

The inspiration of Sisi is clear in Gordon’s collection, "It's this idea of... discipline and severity mixed with the drama and the exuberance," he said. Perhaps there are no greater words to describe Sisi and her style. Cinched waists and petticoated skirts call to mind the mid-19th century silhouette, and lustrous silk fabrics nod to the expensive fabrics at her disposal as do the delicate additions of lace and hand embroidery.

You May Also Like: