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Fortuny silk Delphos tea gown with original box, 1920s

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Lady Bonham-Carter: Everyone went to Fortuny then. I think everyone I knew had a Fortuny dress. Mariano Fortuny first created his signature Delphos gown in 1907, repeating the design with subtle changes until his death in 1949.... See more » Lady Bonham-Carter: Everyone went to Fortuny then. I think everyone I knew had a Fortuny dress. Mariano Fortuny first created his signature Delphos gown in 1907, repeating the design with subtle changes until his death in 1949. The sleeveless version appeared in the 1920s. The gown is based on the pleated linen chitons worn by Greek maidens 2500 years ago and seen today on Delphic Greek sculpture. The Fortuny Delphos gown has preserved the poetry of line of the Greek robe. This Delphos gown, which belonged to Mrs. Wallace E. Pratt of New York, is a special find because it comes with the original labeled box. Women have worn their Fortuny gowns with affection and sometimes with reverence. Fortuny used a thin silk satin more finely pleated than anything ever seen in costume. His famous hand-pleating method has never been successfully duplicated. Because the seams are so tightly pleated, they are difficult to detect. The garment is incredibly soft and liquid, molding to the curves of the body, like the draped dress of the ancient Greeks. Fortuny's contemporaries described him as "an alchemist" because he never revealed the secret of the artistic techniques employed in his atelier at the Palazzo Orfei in Venice. He achieved magical effects by means unfathomable to outsiders. The feather-weight tea gown is weighted on the shoulders and sides with strings of striated Venetian glass beads, necessary to weigh down the lightweight silk. The antique (Maya) blue color is subtly shaded. To keep the pleats in place, the dress should be stored twisted like a skein of yarn. Fortuny's clothing has been treasured by the cultured elite from the early 1920s, when he stood aloof from fashion; consequently, he has never gone out of fashion. His designs have endured as timeless works of art that transcend the rigid dictates of fashion. A Fortuny design, an unconditional statement of beauty, nevertheless adapts itself to the wearer and the occasion. The novelist Marcel Proust described Fortuny as "faithfully antique but powerfully original." In the section of Remembrance of Things Past titled The Captive, the personage Fortuny constitutes an entire leitmotiv. In all of Proust's work, Fortuny is the only character who retains a real-life identity, a testimony to his cultural importance. Describing the great aristocrat, the Duchess de Guermantes, Proust wrote: "Of all the indoor and outdoor gowns that Mme. de Guermantes wore, those which seemed most to respond to a definite intention, to be endowed with a special significance, were the garments made by Fortuny...Is it their historical character or the fact that each one is unique that gives them so special a significance that the pose of the woman wearing one while she waits for you to appear assumes an exceptional importance?" Actresses and top models like Julie Christie, Lauren Hutton, Geraldine Chaplin, and Tina Chow have been devoted to the work of Mariano Fortuny y Madrazo. The original Fortuny Delphos gown is rarely found outside of major collections. Not only is the Delphos an extraordinarily beautiful collectible of proven value, it also represents the ultimate in high-style glamour for the woman who has the figure and status to wear one. Although known today primarily as a clothing and textile designer, Fortuny was also a painter, etcher, sculptor, photographer, lighting engineer, set designer, theatre director, inventor, and architect. In the field of design, he personified the Renaissance man who could do it all. As a young man, he stated, "Art is my life's aim." His work is a living testament to that ideal. The condition is almost excellent. The pleats are ever so slightly relaxed over the knee. As you can see, it doesn't even show in the pictures. I don't consider this a flaw. The pleats in the fabric allow the gown to expand to fit a range of sizes. It was photographed on a mannequin that measures 35" bust, 25" waist, and 36" hip. The tea gown is 59 1/2" long from the shoulder to the hem. See less »

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#6641 $16,000

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Fortuny silk Delphos tea gown with original box, 1920s

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