Court Fashion: First French Emprie

Gentle Reader -

One of the great mysteries of fashion is the Empire style and its frequent appearances throughout modern designer collections.

How is this style, which essentially is a Greek Revival shift, able to come back again and again? Poiret, Balenciaga, YSL, Lagerfeld for Chanel...the list goes on of desginers/couturiers/stylists who have visited the exaggerated proportions (high bustline/waistline) that are the Empire-style hallmark.

A few reasons to offer:

1. The women who wore them: Josephine Beauharnais (later, Bonaparte), Madame Recamier
2. The painters who immortalized them: David, Ingres
3. Simplicity of silhouette

Later interpretations are often in heavier or embroidered fabrics, but we must remember that the original versions were really quite revealing. Many of the fabrics used were sheer and suggestive of the form that was wearing them.

The Empire style's true success is that it is one of the few garment styles to have successfully made the transition from Ancient Greece(conceptually, at least) to the modern fashion canon. This is a style of clothing that did not require women to wear a corset, making it the most modern (and ancient) thing for an independent woman to wear.


- AP