The Empire Strikes Back!
The Empire Line was everywhere in the sixties. It was a style which was inspired by the fashions of the First French Empire, which lasted from 1804 to 1815, which featured a very high waistline, just under the bust, with a long, loose-fitting skirt underneath. This could be very flattering, which is possibly why designers come back to it perennially. The popularity of Jane Austen movie and TV adaptations over the last few decades have helped the process enormously. Right is a picture of Gwyneth Paltrow in the 1996 movie adaptation of Emma , wearing a good example of an Empire Line dress (which is not a term which would have been used in the 19th Century). Here is the ultimate fashion influencer of the First Empire, the Empress Josephine, in a 1805 portrait by Pierre- Paul Prud’hon, wearing what we now call an Empire Line dress. In the sixties designers used the high waistline but with a more fitted skirt, such as in this 1960s knitting pattern from Robin which I picked up...
