Empress Elisabeth of Austria, often known as Sisi, was celebrated for her beauty throughout Europe. However, her relentless pursuit of maintaining her youthful appearance led to extreme dieting and exercise habits that defined much of her life. Her story offers a glimpse into the pressures faced by royal women and the lengths to which they would go to meet societal expectations of beauty.
The Pressure to Remain Youthful
Empress Elisabeth felt constant pressure to remain youthful, and her continuous dieting and excessive exercise kept her waist at 50 cm (19.5 inches) and her weight at a maximum of 50 kilos (110 pounds). Married in 1853 at age 16, empress of Austria claimed to resent the public’s fixation on her looks and figure, but catered to it anyway. She was the rare royal who looked in life like the fairytale version.
A Radical Diet
Elisabeth's diet was very radical and eliminated most solid foods. She often fasted and reportedly recorded her weight every day. In 1860, after returning from Madeira, Count Louis Rechberg wrote, “the Empress has the deepest aversion to any kind of nourishment. For weeks at a time she would live on eggs, oranges and raw milk, at other times on just thin meat broth. Sisi had an incredibly slim figure and maintained a 19-inch waist throughout her adult life. She went to great lengths to keep it that way, and even slept with a cold, wet towel wrapped around her midsection to keep the muscles of her abdomen taut and supple. The Empress of Austria followed a stringent diet. She often only drank a bit of milk, freshly-pressed meat juice, or a mixture of egg whites and salt and ate a few slices of oranges or violet ice cream (her favorite). She often refused to come to dinner, and when she did, she ate “alarmingly little,” as one member of her entourage, Count von Rechberg, noted. “We too,” he complained, “have to suffer for this, for the whole meal, consisting of four courses, four desserts, and coffee, does not last more than twenty-five minutes.” Her diet at times consisted of milk, orange juice, beef broth, or a mixture of egg whites and salt, and she sometimes ate violet-flavored ice. For a time, she alternated “milk days” and “orange days,” on which she would eat nothing else. In addition, she frequently procured laxatives from the imperial pharmacy.
Dangers of Extreme Dieting
Her doctor wrote in the 1890s, “In the otherwise healthy woman, I found fairly pronounced swelling, especially in the ankles. A condition physicians saw rarely in those days and which did not become regrettably notorious until the war. Her physician remarked that it smelt of acetone. Another physician observed “pronounced swelling” here and there on her body, “especially in the ankles.” He identified this as “Edema of hunger,” a rare condition among the elite in those days. Her daughter wrote in May 1898, “Mama looks terribly ill.
Corsets and Lacing
She also often laced so tightly that she suffered from shortness of breath. The lacing frequently took up to an hour, with a total dressing time of up to three hours. This occasionally took place several times a day. This undoubtedly also added to Elisabeth’s desire to avoid public appearances. To accentuate her slim waist, Sisi wore a tight-laced corset. Quite often she was sewn into her opulent dresses and gowns, so no lumps, bumps or creases from clasps and buttons were visible. Her waist, a tight-laced 19 inches.
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Exercise Obsession
Wherever Elisabeth lived, she had exercise rooms installed, which she used every day. She had a barre and rings and used weights and dumbbells. At the Hofburg, the primary residence of the royal family (though Elisabeth, whenever she could help it, was elsewhere), she had a large gymnasium installed and had gymnastic rings hanging from the ceiling in her dressing room. At her Hermesvilla, a manor in Vienna far from the crowds at court, which Franz Joseph had built for her in the vain hope that she might stay more often close to home, the gymnasium was the finest room of all. When she traveled, which was often, her exercise routine traveled with her, as did her cows, to ensure she had the highest-quality milk. A servant recorded that Elisabeth underwent “steam baths followed by 7-degree (celsius - 45 degrees Fahrenheit) full baths, it would put many people into a faint, bring on death. Then there were “sweat cures - every evening dressed very warmly quickly walking up the mountain several times… This was also to prevent getting fat - Her Majesty always looks so exhausted!!”
Physical Activities
In addition to the exercise rooms, Elisabeth also went on daily rides and hikes, and she took up fencing. For a while, she took two fencing lessons a day on top of the usual exercise. When she gave up riding, she took up fencing and long walks. She would hike for hours, in any weather. Even Sisi’s several hour long afternoon walk was more in line with “a forced march at great speed over huge distances” than a leisurely stroll about the grounds.The Empress was one of the best equestriennes of her time, and when riding began to cause her too much joint pain, she turned to excessive walking. While walking was a common pastime, and often a recommended type of exercise for women of the time, Sisi enjoyed going on long walks that could last up to 10 hours. Even the pitiful protests of her ladies-in-waiting who accompanied her never stopped the Empress.
Beauty Regimen
Sisi’s medicine kit included cocaine and heroin, both legal at the time. She is said to have used the drugs for menstrual cramps. Mornings began with a cold bath, predating the current fad among athletes, celebrities and social media influencers who claim to be energized by plunging into icy waters. Sisi also favoured “hay bathing,” a practice that had been “discovered” centuries earlier by Tyrolean farmers who found that their aches and pains lessened when they slept out in the field on a bed of grass or hay. She did, however, try to maintain the gifts nature had provided her by applying a paste made of strawberries to her face. This could actually have had some effect, since strawberries contain citric and salicylic acids, both of which are “hydroxy acids” that can exfoliate the skin and treat blemishes. Foreshadowing developments in cosmetic science, Sisi had a special cream formulated with an inclusion of snail slime. It turns out that the mucus snails leave behind contains glycoproteins that are being studied for reducing signs of skin aging. At night, the empress would sleep with a leather mask that bound thin slices of veal to her face. Empress Elisabeth used lots of creams and lotions on her face and body. She didn’t stick to a specific one but often liked to experiment. Some of these concoctions sound delightful, like the strawberry pulp or rose petals used as a facial mask. Others were rather gross and somewhat disturbing, even by today’s standards. For example, thin slices of raw veal placed on Sisi’s face and then held in place by a leather mask overnight. To keep her skin soft, Elisabeth often bathed in warm water infused with olive oil and used a lotion called Cream Celeste. It was a mixture of spermaceti, Cera Alba, sweet almond oil, and glycerin. This rich cream kept her skin well-moisturized, especially during the long winters.
Hair Care
Perhaps Sisi’s most distinguishing feature was her ankle-length, chestnut hair that she wore in elaborate braids designed by her personal hairdresser, Faini Feifalik. Combing and styling took three hours every day. That was nothing compared to the full day spent every three weeks on washing the tresses with raw eggs and brandy. Again, there is some semblance of science here. Alcohol is a good solvent for grease, and eggs contain proteins that diffuse into the hair to strengthen strands. Lecithin in the yolk is an effective moisturizer. Sisi had luscious, chestnut-brown locks that almost touched the ground. Her hair was her pride and crowning glory, and she spent two to three hours per day sitting on a chair or on the billiard table to have it combed and styled. Sisi would sit on a low chair in the center of her dressing room, while Fanny, dressed in white, including white gloves, would comb and style her hair into elaborate up-does. Once the procedure was done, the stray hairs would be collected from the comb and counted. If too many had fallen out, the Empress would get upset. This prompted Fanny to attach adhesive strips on the inside hem of her apron to hide the wayward strands of hair, thus avoiding Sisi’s inevitable temper tantrums. Another, rather time-consuming procedure, was washing her hair. This was done every fortnight with a mixture of cognac and egg yolk and afterward conditioned with a so-called disinfectant. Once her hair was rinsed thoroughly, Sisi’s hair was towel-dried and combed before she would walk up and down her dressing room until her hair was dry. Is it any wonder that it took the Empress all day to wash her hair?
Modern Interpretations and Legacy
Today she would probably be classified as anorexic. Today, many historians believe that the Empress suffered from Anorexia Nervosa. Undoubtedly, she led a life that many others envied but was filled with duties, restrictions, and demands. Her life was strictly regulated by court etiquette and the Spanish Court Ceremonial. She was not allowed a personal life, which made her feel out of control. However, the one thing she could control was her appearance. She created an image of herself as forever young and forever beautiful, an image adored in Austria and enshrined on commemorative cups and celluloid. Elisabeth’s later years and legacy are marked by her efforts both to destroy and to preserve her image. She spent countless hours of her life in the struggle to be beautiful; she wanted to make something ephemeral eternal, and, in the end, she sort of got it. She wanted, it seems, to be seen and known for her beauty and to disappear, for fear of being found wanting.
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Refusal to be Photographed
At age 40, Sisi decided to refuse to be photographed of have her portrait painted and often hid her face behind a parasol or fan from opportunistic photographers. The Empress hiding her face behind a fan. Once again Sissi was way ahead of her time, gripped as she was by a very contemporary amalgam of compulsive narcissism and obsessive secrecy. When it came to aging, her attitude was: pics or it didn’t happen.
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