Fashions of the Hapsburg Era

Book excerpt: "The fashions worn during the Hapsburg era in Vienna and Budapest had their own kind of uniqueness. This is not to say that well-dressed Austrians and Hungarians of the periods covered in the exhibition were out of touch with what was considered fashionable to the rest of the Western world. On the contrary, the upper-class Austrian and Hungarian ladies were well aware of the latest French fashions. The gentlemen, too, were very much in tune with the sartorial modes of the French in the eighteenth century, and later, in the nineteenth century, they turned to the English styles, with their accent on elegance and superb tailoring. What was it, then, that made their fashions unique? It is important first to note that although the Hungarians were tied to the Austrian Hapsburg Empire in one way to another from 1699 until World War I, they remained culturally apart. The Austrians leaned both politically and ethnically toward the West. For centuries the Hapsburgs, through intermarriage and wars, were linked to many of the major courts of Europe. Marie-Antoinette, queen of France, and Marie-Louise, the second wife of Napoleon I, were both Austrians. The Hungarians, on the other hand, besieged by the Huns in the ninth century, occupied by the Mongols from 1241 to 1242, and conquered by the Turks between 1541 and 1683, developed a distinct taste for oriental styles"--Publisher's description