May 21 - November 8, 2008
Empress Josephine sitting on a throne in a dress with an empire waist and short sleeves
Image courtesy of NYPL digital gallery,
The New York Pubic Library

Nineteenth-century fashion icons included Empress Josephine, whose slender figure suited the highwaisted silhouette of the first French Empire, and Empress Eugénie, who fashioned herself as a new Marie Antoinette. Eugénie’s style drew on the color palette of Versailles and was closely associated with the work of the couturier Charles Frederick Worth.

 

Chemise dresses