Organza tank style dress with an empire waist and flared skirt.

Most curvy girls think they need a dress with an empire waist, but that's actually not true," Viola says. "

Fergie looked tanned and relaxed in a halter-style, leaf-print silk chiffon BCBG dress with an empire waist sash.

Ultimately, that's empowering for the women, and they undoubtedly walk away with more valuable information than if they had simply been bullied into a dress with an empire waist because it's deemed more flattering to their pear shape.

IN Ellen Bakalian's family, two things have been passed down from woman to woman on her maternal side - a grandfather clock and a pink silk wedding dress with an Empire waist first worn by her great-great-great-grandmother in 1827.

Mr. Moran did not win the crown, but he was elected to the homecoming court, appearing at the college football game on Nov. 6 wearing a black dress with an Empire waist and elbow-length red gloves, accentuated by the yellow sash draped over each of the 11 homecoming court students.

And at Rhum Raisins (in a separate Maisons de Mode cluster at 101-107 avenue Jean Lebas), the three lovely Vermeulen sisters make pretty, structured clothes like a navy crepe dress with an empire waist and pleated skirt, and a sleeveless faux-fur patchwork minicoat with a stole collar.