Archduchess Gisela, daughter of Franz Josef, Princess of Bavaria

[Carolath Habsburg]

Yup, she had a very slight figure

[gogm]

Corsets are covered by the following:
http://www.staylace.com/ . Their galleries show a number of corseted royals as well as ladies of the stage. This pair of Archduchesses is included on their site.

[Romanov_fan]

Maud defintely had a tiny waist yes- so many don't consider her pretty, but I do. I didn't realize so many royal ladies pictures (like Gisela) were touched up to make them appear slimmer- I knew it happened, touching up, but didn't realize among other things it was done to make them appear thinner.I thought it was just the corseting of the day.In more informal pictures, those would be untouched up, and we might get a more accurate idea of their waists from there, right? Several of Queen Victoria's grandauughters seemed very slim in pictures- like Marie of Romania and her sisters, and the Wales sisters. I assume they actually looked like that to some extent, whatever touching up might have been done (although Maud apparently did have that waist)?

[Eric_Lowe]

Victoria's daughters do not have tiny waists. Like Beatrice or Helena.

[CountessKate]

Frequent pregnancies, heavy meals, and lack of exercise played havoc with royal ladies' figures, and sensible women did not tight lace.  Pictures of royal women who put on a lot of weight after marriage (or who weren't too slim to begin with) such as Queen Mary and the Empress Augusta Victoria are almost always touched up to give them better figures, but those of Queen Alexandra and the Empress Elisabeth were not as they kept their slim figures throughout their lives (although Alexandra's face was touched up to remove the signs of ageing in her later years - she wasn't as miraculous as all that).  Their corsets gave them a rigid shape, but they were slim to begin with.  It's interesting that Marie of Roumania - who had a good figure as a young woman - was often photographed in flowing draperies, suggesting she preferred to disguise pregnancies or weight gains rather than resort to manipulation of pictures. 

It must have been hard for Gisela - so much plainer and less slim than her mother, who never really cared for her either - you can't blame her for wanting to look elegant along with her younger sister. 

[Romanov_fan]

Victoria's daughters do not have tiny waists. Like Beatrice or Helena.

Very true. But Beatrice's wedding photos show her ( not sure if these were touched up) laced very tightly trying to look thin, although as she was plump otherwise her tighly corseted waist doesn't give the impression of true thiness, but rather of trying very hard to achieve it.Alix of Russia certainly had a slim waist in earlier photos, but not like her cousins the Wales sisters or Marie of Romania and her sisters- she looks thin but not like she was tighly corseted as they- looks more natural. Countess Kate's point about Marie of Romania's later clothing is certainly very true- she had a very unique style of dressing in later years, although I think this was her own style to to set her apart from her fellow royal women, as well as anything to do with weight gain (she did gain weight though).

[Carolath Habsburg]

Talking about Gisi, here one postcard of her and her husband

[Eric_Lowe]

Gisela's figure never matched her mother's.

[Yelena Aleksandrovna]

Gisela's figure is a little bit plumper, even in her face she doesn't resemble her mother very
much, I'd like to know where she got her features, perhaps more from his father

[Carolath Habsburg]

i checked the whole topic and i didnt see these ones...

[THERRY]

WOW !!! Very beautiful these paintings and new for me too

[Yelena Aleksandrovna]

Katenka that iamges that you posted are sooo... lovely... what beautiful, Gisela looks very
nice on this pics!!! Thank you very much!!!

[Carolath Habsburg]

You welcome! ;-). The second one is my favorite. I wonder who painted them

[Yelena Aleksandrovna]

How old was Gisela in the paintings? I think that she is less than 10 years odl, perhaps
eight?

[Eric_Lowe]

All done before her marriage. The portraits did flattered her. She was never graceful and often clumsy, and for Sisi that was unforgivable. She commented on her first grandchild "very noisy and ugly and looked just like Gisela !". I think Sisi thought Rudolf was the best looking of her children.