Page "Empress Elisabeth of Austria" Paragraph 18

Although on her return to Vienna in August 1862, a lady-in-waiting reported that “ she eats properly, sleeps well, and does not tight-lace anymore ”, her clothing from this time until her death still measured only 18 1 / 2 – 19 1 / 2 inches around the waist, which prompted the Prince of Hesse to describe her as “ almost inhumanly slender .” She developed a horror of fat women and transmitted this attitude to her youngest daughter, who was terrified when, as a little girl, she first met Queen Victoria.