11 May 2023

Imperial Carriage Museum at Schloss Schönbrunn in Vienna provides insights into the ongoing research on the so-called 'Mystery Dress' of Sisi, Empress Elisabeth of Austria

Today, Fashion.at followed an invitation to a premiere at the 'Kaiserliche Wagenburg', the Imperial Carriage Museum at Schloss Schönbrunn in Vienna. Dr. Monica Kurzel-Runtscheiner, Director of the Imperial Carriage Museum and Head of Research, presented for the first time the findings on the 'Mystery Dress', so called because it's still not certain whether it was the wedding dress worn by Empress Sisi when she married in the Augustinian Church in Vienna on 24 April 1854. The church wedding was attended by family members and selected guests. Excluded were chroniclers, such as journalists, and other members of the press, such as professional illustrators, who would have recorded the event in words and pictures. The wedding dress is described in some non-professional sources as being embroidered with silver or gold. However, these sources aren't reliable.

Dr. Monica Kurzel-Runtscheiner described her detective work like the 'huntress of the lost treasure' - a story that began by chance. In 2021, a Spanish researcher contacted her and told her about the discovery of an 1857 painting depicting the splendid train that was preserved by the descendants of Empress Elisabeth for over a century as part of her bridal clothes. The luxuriously embroidered train was acquired by the Kunsthistorisches Museum in Vienna in 1989 and has been on display in the museum Kaiserliche Wagenburg since 2008, along with other clothes of the Empress and carriages used by her and members of her entourage.

Now the portrait, on loan from the Silesian National Museum in Opava (Czech Republic), together with the reconstructed dress, will be on display until 3 November 2023. The museum's restoration team used the latest textile technologies to reproduce the gold embroidery on tulle with a textile print. The representation is identical to the original motifs with floral forms on the train and the pattern seen in the painting. The cut of the dress was developed 1:1 from the depiction of the portrait of Sisi. The portrait was painted by Joseph Neugebauer three years after the wedding. Neugebauer wasn't a court painter, which makes it more likely that he painted Elisabeth after available images and gained access to the dress through his connections in higher circles. The dress is mentioned in Sisi's bridal inventory, but not as the wedding dress. It's possible that Sisi's mother-in-law, Archduchess Sophie, changed the original outfit plan and chose the gown with gold embroidery for the wedding.

Images, taken at the press conference on 11 May 2023, from left: The picture shows the director of the Imperial Carriage Museum, Dr. Monica Kurzel-Runtscheiner, talking about the results of the museum's research and the reconstruction of the dress. Right: Exhibition view of the 'Mystery Dress' of Sisi, Empress Elisabeth of Austria in the Kaiserliche Wagenburg (Imperial Carriage Museum) at Schloss Schönbrunn in Vienna. Behind the reconstructed dress with the long train is the portrait of Sisi painted by Joseph Neugebauer in 1857 and a screen where visitors can watch a film about the research, which is still ongoing.