Corsage (2022) Goes Outside the Box

Color me impressed that Corsage (2022), one of a recent spate of Empress Elisabeth of Austria (aka “Sissi”) films/TV series, actually did something crazy: showed something of what I think the real woman was AND aimed for relatively realistic costumes. Elisabeth usually gets the sanitized Disney princess treatment, making her the princess wet dream (true wuv and all that), and these days that seems to include kooky costumes. Instead, the filmmakers of Corsage portray Elisabeth as the sad iconoclast she was, AND while the costumes are somewhat less opulent than actual fashions of the era, they look like actual CLOTHES.

The film itself is about Elisabeth (Vicky Krieps) turning 40 and grappling with the idea of aging. It shows how unhappy she was at being stuck in the “pretty empress” box, her super distorted relationship with her weight and body, her frustrated sexuality, and much more. The film takes place in 1878, making it very convenient to analyze from a dress history perspective.

The costumes were designed by Monika Buttinger, whose done a lot of German-language films but nothing I recognize. She’s done several interviews in which she addresses how she wanted to create a somewhat stripped down version of late 1870s fashions in keeping with the film’s mood and her understanding of Elisabeth’s character:

“We designed all the other costumes to be very straightforward and clear, rejecting opulent ruffles, patterns and decorations in favour of very beautiful, special materials to create the desired effect. The decorative elements struck us as too much, even if they were in line with historical truth … If we had created the dresses in accordance with what is known from the historical reality, they would have been much more lavish” (“‘She was an influencer of the late 19^th century.'”).

Let’s first look at a few images of fashions from 1878 to understand the context:

There’s a wide range of looks on Elisabeth (and her ladies), but primarily she’s in daywear, often with slightly weird little tweaks that totally worked as a subtle reminder that she’s not a conformist. Designer Buttinger worked successfully from a capsule wardrobe,

“It takes about 120 working hours to produce one dress. To simplify the process, I developed for Elisabeth a variety of building block elements or systems, because we needed approximately 45 different outfits. For the dresses she wore at the Hofburg there were small changes made — perhaps a dress would be gathered, there would be a different overskirt or a simple cravat-style trimming — and this enabled us to create a large number of “looks” from 10 set pieces” (“‘She was an influencer of the late 19^th century.'”).

You’ll notice a lot of sober colors used in these. According to The Wrap,

“Buttinger mapped out a ‘color world’ for each location Elisabeth visits, often corresponding to her emotional state. In Vienna’s Hofburg Palace, a muted palette of silver, gold, gray and beige echoes her feelings about royal life. During an English getaway, she sports a bright red-orange dress. In situations ‘where she feels good,’ she wears mauve, her favorite color. And as Elisabeth embraces a certain darkness, the color scheme follows suit. ‘We wanted to show the monarchy breaking down or getting to its end,’ Buttinger said.”

As I mentioned above, Elisabeth had a complicated relationship with her body. She was basically anorexic and constantly exercised. As a result, the film shows her doing various exercises (and super stressing about her weight), and she gets some interesting clothing to do this in:

According to Buttinger,

“One interesting aspect for us in the costume department was Elisabeth’s sporting activities and how that affected our approach to her waist. The film shows her fencing, performing gymnastics and riding side saddle, among other things. For the gymnastics we produced what is known as a cording corset, so she could move more easily in all directions. That meant using fine cord sewn into the corset which emphasises the silhouette and at the same time makes it possible to bend the torso better. That was our interpretation: we felt that using a normal corset would have made it look completely unrealistic” (“‘She was an influencer of the late 19^th century.'”)

Given Elisabeth’s messed up relationship with her body and weight, and as you might guess from the title, corsetry is very important in this film:

“At an early stage of the production we spent a lot of time discussing how far the extremely narrow waist – which is a central theme of the film in terms of costumes – could be captured by VFX effects. As far as I know, in the end everything was resolved on an analogue basis. Vicky Krieps’s body – she’s tall (actually she wore heels as well) with relatively broad shoulders and a narrow waist – provided the best basis for achieving the hourglass figure we were aiming for. But I should add that we laced up her waist, which is small enough anyway, to make it up to 8 cm smaller” (“‘She was an influencer of the late 19^th century.'”).

There is some predictable corset whining related to us by Buttinger, but given that they were really going for a tight-lacing look, I’m going to let it pass:

“Wearing the corset was very gruelling for Vicky, but it was part of the agreement she made when she took the role. She was fantastic, open to anything and, I have to say, extremely resilient to physical pain. She always stressed that the pressure she felt from the corset was also ‘oppressive’ psychologically. I mean, you can’t even laugh properly, and you can hardly eat.”

I thought the corsets were very well done, with one exception:

There was one specific reproduction — Elisabeth is shown posing for this portrait:

According to The Wrap, “[Director] Kreutzer instructed Buttinger to re-create the uncharacteristic outfit — white gown, ruby necklace, floor-length wig — as faithfully as possible.” But in another interview, Buttinger said,

“It’s quite possible that the white dress she wears in the film when she is being painted never actually existed. In the film this features during the phase when Elisabeth decided there were already enough paintings of her which could be used as “models” for future portraits. In all likelihood that dress is the product of a painter’s imagination. Marie and I decided that for a change, that dress could be more playful and pretty” (“‘She was an influencer of the late 19^th century.'”)

Compare the portrait above with the result:

No doubt you’ve noticed Elisabeth’s famous hairstyles, which she was known for (she was indeed, as designer Buttinger said, “Elisabeth was really an influencer at her time. She was an icon for decades, which was very unusual, I think. Every woman focused on her style, on her clothes” — How ‘Corsage’ Costume Designer Monika Buttinger Crafted a ‘Fashionable Interpretation’ of a Rebellious Empress). The film does a great job capturing her signature style:

I was a bit confused by the ladies-in-waiting’s hairstyles, which seemed more 1880s with their high tops:

And there’s a lot of lace featured in the film, sometimes as veils, sometimes on fans, that I didn’t love:

 

Have you seen Corsage? What did you think?