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Mariano Fortuny

(original name: Mariano Fortuny y Madrazo)
portrait of Mariano Fortuny, creator of Delphos dress
birth place: Granada Spain
birth date: 11 May 1871
death place: Venice Italy
death date: 3 May 1949
Zodiac sign: Taurus
occupation: painter, sculptor, architect, coutueriere
PROFILE

Mariano Fortuny

Mariano Fortuny y Madrazo (11 May 1871 – 3 May 1949) was a Spanish fashion designer who opened his couture house in 1906 and continued until 1946. He was the son of the painter Mariano Fortuny y Marsal. Mariano Fortuny is mostly known for his Delphos dress made of pleated silk.
chronicle


1871 birth, Granada Spain

Mariano Fortuny's father Mariano Fortuny y Marsal
Mariano Fortuny's father Mariano Fortuny y Marsal
Mariano Fortuny's mother Cecilia Madrazo(1846-1932), portrait by Mariano Fortuny's father Mariano Fortuny y Marsal
Mariano Fortuny's mother Cecilia Madrazo(1846-1932), portrait by Mariano Fortuny's father Mariano Fortuny y Marsal
Picture
Alhambra Interior, Granada Spain
Mariano Fortuny y Madrazo was born in Granada Spain on 11 May 1871, in a prestigious and artistic family. His father Maria Fortuny y Marsal (1838-1874) was an important oritentalist painter of his time and an avid art collector, and the family of his mother Cecilia de Madrazo was in the service of Spanish King.  Her father was the director of Museo Prado in Madrid Spain.

Mariano has herited the passion of painting from his family, and started to paint since an early age.

When he was 3 year old, his father died, his mother Cecilia took him and his brother from Rome to live in Paris.
Picture

1889: Venice

Since 1889, Mariano moved to Venice with his mother Cecilia de Madrazo. They lived in Palazzo Martinengo, along Grand Canal.

It was in Venice that Mariano started to be involved with theatre and opera. He seemed to love every aspect of this world of spectacle, in particular the designing of decor and lighting effects, with a painter's eyes and inventor's brain, he invented an indirect lighting which gave the background of the plays a much more profound illusion.

Later, in order to achieve a fine harmony between the decor he designed for the plays and the artists who performed, he also started to create costumes for them, creating new textiles as well printing motifs he painted himself.

His passion for opera grew more intensely when he found Richard Wagner through the Spainish painter and musician Rogelio de Egusquiza, which became a life long love and obssesion.

Mais on dit qu’un artiste de Venise, Fortuny, a retrouvé le secret de leur fabrication et qu’avant quelques années les femmes pourront se promener, et surtout rester chez elles, dans des brocarts aussi magnifiques que ceux que Venise ornait, pour ses patriciennes, avec des dessins d’Orient".

(But it was said that an artist in Venice, Fortuny, has found the secret of making it and some years ago, the women coud take a walk, or above all stay at home in the brocades as magnific as those adorned by the Venitian patricians in the oriental drawings.)

-Marcel Proust, A la recherche du temps perdu

1907:  the first Delphos dress

“Ma Femme et moi, nous avons fondé, au Palazzo Orfei un atelier d’impression suivant une méthode entièrement nouvelle … Cette industrie a commencé par des châles en soie et s’est développée avec des robes”.

-Mariano Fortuny
1907, the most famous creation of Mariano Fortuny, the first Delphos gown was created in the attic of Palazzo Pesaro degli Orfei, It was a pleated silk taffeta gown reminiscent of the Greek Ionic chiton, and was named Delphos in tribute to the severe Charioteer, a bronze statue found at Delphi in 1896.
Henriette Fortuny in a Delphos dress
It was Mariano's long time muse and later wife Henriette Negrin who invented a unique way of pleating the silk taffeta fabric, so that it gave volume, texture as well as character to the otherwise flimsy fabric, it was also her who invented the silk dyeing technique using natural dye around the world.

Mariano met Henriette, a French clothes designer in Paris in 1897, and she soon became his muse as well as his collaborator, they work together on all of the significant creations of Mariano as costume and fashion designer.
Mariano Fortuny's patent
Some of the Delphos dresses:
Mariano Fortuny Delphos dress
Mariano Fortuny Delphos dress
Mariano Fortuny Delphos dress
Mariano Fortuny Delphos dress
Mariano Fortuny Delphos dress
Mariano Fortuny Delphos dress
Mariano Fortuny Delphos dress
Mariano Fortuny Peplos dress

1924 marriage

In 1924, Mariano married Henriette, the two artistic lovers became husband and wife.
Henriette Negrin Fortuny (1977-1965), wife of Mariano Fortuny in Delphos dress
Henriette Negrin Fortuny (1977-1965), wife of Mariano Fortuny in Delphos dress
Henriette Fortuny portrait with a silk Knossos shawl, by Mariano Fortuny, 1935
Henriette Fortuny portrait with a silk Knossos shawl, by Mariano Fortuny, 1935

1949 Death

In 1949, Mariano Fortuny died in his home in Venice, Italy
portrait of Mariano Fortuny, creator of Delphos dress

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style

Colors:

Mariano Fortuny was a painter before he was dress maker, and he loved colors, both their vibrancy and how they are played with light and lighting. With the help of his wife Henriette, he custom dyed his dresses according to client requirements with dyes he bought from around the world, thus making them more unique.
Mariano Fortuny silk fabric
Mariano Fortuny silk fabric
Mariano Fortuny silk Delphos dresses
Mariano Fortuny silk Delphos dresses

Fabrics: 

Mariano Fortuny coat and dresses
Mariano Fortuny`s favorite fabric is undoudbtedly silk. Like Madame Gres`s manipulative folding, twisting and braiding with silk jersey,  Fortuny invented the very special technique of pleating them which still remain unknown today.

Silhouette:

Almost all of Mariano Fotuny`s dresses were in column shape, inspired by Greek sculpture, and many of his dresses are called `Delphos`.

  • Dresses
Mariano Fortuny Delphos dress
Mariano Fortuny Delphos dress
Mariano Fortuny Delphos dress
Mariano Fortuny Delphos dress
Mariano Fortuny Delphos dress
Mariano Fortuny Delphos dress
Mariano Fortuny Delphos dress
Mariano Fortuny Delphos dress
Mariano Fortuny Delphos dress
Mariano Fortuny Delphos dress
Mariano Fortuny Delphos dress
Mariano Fortuny Peplos dress
Mariano Fortuny Delphos dress
Mariano Fortuny Delphos dress
Mariano Fortuny Delphos dress
Mariano Fortuny Delphos dress
Mariano Fortuny Delphos dress
Mariano Fortuny Delphos dress
Mariano Fortuny Delphos dress
Mariano Fortuny dress
  • Capes and Coats
Mariano Fortuny Cape
Mariano Fortuny Cape
Mariano Fortuny Cape
Mariano Fortuny coat
  • Ensembles
Mariano Fortuny ensemble
Mariano Fortuny ensemble
Mariano Fortuny ensemble
Mariano Fortuny ensemble
Mariano Fortuny ensemble
the women he dressed

Mrs. William Wetmore in Delphos dress
Anna Pavlova in Delphos dress of Mariano Fortuny
Clarisse Coudert, wife of Condé Nast, in a Mariano Fortuny Delphos dress
Henriette Fortuny in Delphos dress
Isadora Duncan dancing
Natacha Rambova in Delphos dress
Miss Muriel Gore in a Fortuny dress, by Sir Oswald Hornby Joseph Birley, 1919
lilian gish adjusting her mariano fortuny delphos gown 1910s
Peggy Guggenheim in her mariano fortuny Delphos gown on her Venice terrace, 1954
Gloria Vanderbilt in Delphos dress of Mariano Fortuny, the biggest private collector of Delphos dresses
Elsie Lee McNeill in Delphos dress
De toutes les robes d’intérieur ou d’extérieur que portait Madame de Guermantes, celles qui semblaient les plus répondre à une intention bien définie, celles qui semblaient devoir être endossées avec un sens spécial, étaient les robes créées par Fortuny y Madrazo à partir d’ancien modèles vénitiens. C’est leur caractère historique, ou plus tôt le fait que chacune d’elles est unique, qui leur donne cette signifiance si spéciale, que la pose de la femme qui la porte pendant qu’elle vous attend ou qu’elle vous parle, semble assumer une importance exceptionnelle…


-Marcel Proust, A la recherche du temps perdu

the people related to

issey miyake portrait black and white
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THE LIFESTYLE
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 Palazzo Pesaro del Orfei, San Marco, Venice

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Further interest

Websites 

  • Mariano Fortuny official website
  • Mariano Fortuny collection at The Metropolitan Museum of Art
Books:
Articles:
Henriette Nigrin Fortuny, wife of Mariano Fortuny, creator of Delphos dress
Henriette Fortuny: Portrait of a muse at Palazzo Fortuny in Venice

Autoportrait de Mariano Fortuny vers 1890
Mariano Fortuny y Madrazo, un fils d'Artistes

Picture
150 años de Mariano Fortuny: el legado (en la moda) del da Vinci español

​Videos
In Chapter 18 of  the book El Tiempo Entre Costuras written by Spanish writer María Dueñas, there is a scene where the protagonist Sira, a semestress made a false Delphos dress for her most important client Rosalinda Fox who needed a dress urgently. And this scene was recreated again in the tv series of same name.

In the scene, Sira made the pleats by wringing the fabric and then heat it over fire, and at the end of the scene, she told Rosalinda that the pleat will last just one day. But the pleats of a real Mariano Fortuny would last much longer, and with the favorable humility and careful protection, almost forever.
mariano_fortuny_the_references_book_el_tiempo_entre_costuras_capítulo_18.pdf
File Size: 84 kb
File Type: pdf
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