When shopping for a wedding dress, you may come across some terminology. Recently,
a question was posed from a customer of UWDress.com: what is an empire waist?

When a dress is listed as having an empire waist, it means that the dress has a fitted bodice
ending just below the bust, giving a high-waisted appearance, and a gathered skirt which is
long and loosely fitting but skims the body. A less common term, the style was also known as
an "impure waist" possibly due to the fact that it hid the wearers actual waistline.

The empire dress can enhance a smaller bust and can also give an illusion of a longer body, so
it's best on slender-on-top or petite figures. It also camouflages a bottom-heavy figure or thick
waist, so the outline is especially flattering to pear shapes wishing to disguise the stomach area
or emphasize the bust. Since it embodies so many benefits, this 200-year-old dress style keeps its
popularity today.

While the empire style comes into fashion in the late eighteenth century, here the word empire
refers to the period of the first French empire; Napoleon's first Empress Josephine frequently
wore the empire waist style of dress, and contributed to its popularity.

Originally, the empire waist dress consisted of a very low, square neckline, small cap sleeves,
and a high waist with the fabric of the dress gathered together under the bust with a decorative
ribbon or band. Nowadays, there are various variations of empire dresses for you to choose from,
Such as strapless, one-shoulder, straps, sweetheart, long sleeves, sleeveless and so on. This is a very
forgiving wedding dress shape, great for many body types.  It tends to flatter the Inverted Triangle,
the Apple, the Pear and the Hour Glass.

By the way, empire dresses are also a good choice for pregnant females if they don't want to show
their continuously growing tummy.