Princesse

A very stylized range of women’s clothes using vertical front and back seams to follow the body’s shape without restricting it, thereby creating a natural silhouette. The style was launched in 1863 by Charles Frédéric Worth and revolutionised women’s dress. His first designs were for the Empress Eugènie and Princess Alexandra of Wales. They were flowing and comfortable, without defined waists, which made them very different from the women’s dresses of the time, which made use of corsets and full skirts. The Princesse style was taken up again at the beginning of the 20^th century and in the 1930s. The designs always had a fitted bodice with several vertical panels flaring out from below the bust.