Woman's Fortuny Lounge or Evening Jacket

FortunyJacket_Front.jpg
FortunyJacket_Back.jpg

Subject

Clothing and Dress

Title

Woman's Fortuny Lounge or Evening Jacket

Date

ca. 1920 - 1930

Format

The silk velvet jacket has a circumference of 62 inches (157.4 cm) and is 30 inches (76.2 cm) long from shoulder to hem. Furthermore, the sleeves have a width of 10 inches (25.4 cm) and a total circumference of 20 inches (50.8 cm)

Description

Combining history, anthropology, and art, Mariano Fortuny (1871-1949) is revered as a maestro of creating dyed and patterned fabrics. His aspirations and inspirations came to him young; Mariano Fortuny was born into a renowned family of artists in Grenada, Spain, according to the history timeline on the Fortuny Foundation website. Fortuny’s move to the Italian city of Venice accounts for much of his famed work. Fascinated by different cultures of art, history, and romance, Fortuny sampled various techniques when creating his fabrics and garments. Incorporating Italian influence, Mariano Fortuny used handcrafted Murano glass beads from Venice, and created textile patterns with motifs that reflected his studies in the city's art museums. Venice, as an important center to the Renaissance textile trade with the Orient, (Carrara 2021) allowed him to draw upon Greek, Japanese, and Southeastern Asian methods for the handcrafting of each individual fabric and garment. His ideas also came from a rich source of ancient Persian and Islamic cultures (Vintage Textile n.d.). Typically, Fortuny would synthesize different elements from numerous cultural inspirations, tying them all together.

This jacket serves the function of both aesthetically pleasing quality of design, as well as comfort. The seams are slip-stitched, and hand sewn, as exemplified by the expertly concealed stitches in the folded edges of the jacket. Constructed from only three pieces (one back and two side fronts), with seams across each shoulder, under the arms, and down each side, the jacket has ample room for active movement. Made of silk velvet and lined with silk faille, the jacket could be worn in cooler temperatures as it has a heavy drape. Whether worn indoors or out, this jacket embodies all the qualities of Fortuny’s early twentieth-century luxurious designs.  

Mariano Fortuny’s methods of hand stenciling and hand dyeing ensured that no two garments were alike, as they varied slightly in the artistic techniques employed to make them. The pattern on this jacket is hand stenciled with layers of subtly interchanging silver or gray pigment paint, reproducing the Renaissance fresco effect that Fortuny was so fond of, not only on the central area of the garment, but also along the edges. According to Vintage Textile (n.d.), Fortuny was obsessed with the art of color application and its intricate subtlety. His works became known as masterpieces, due to his self-taught expertise in the manufacturing, mixing, and application of naturally sourced textile dyes (Vintage Textile n.d.). His methods were to piece-dye cut lengths, frequently layering both natural and (later on) aniline dyes – and to even incorporating agents to resist previously applied colors – which resulted in the random, transparent irregularity depicted in this jacket (Carrara 2021). Carrara also notes that Mariano Fortuny combined metal powder with pigments that simulated the shimmering metallic thread commonly used in sixteenth-century velvets.

This silk velvet jacket was most likely intended for evening wear and public events. Mariano Fortuny specialized in these handcrafted garments that had a flare for opulence and lavishness, exemplified through the expensive techniques and fabrics used to make such garments. The combination of Delphos dress covered by a velvet jacket was initially popular for tea gowns.

Although most of his designs were sold, commissioned, and displayed in his Venice atelier, Fortuny did branch out to other avenues of sales. He first allowed collections of his gowns, fabrics, and accessories to be sold in an upscale Paris boutique operated by Paul Poiret (Carrara 2021). This collaboration would have also been around the same time as Poiret’s greatest success, also pre-World War I. Poiret’s driving influence of Orientalism in all his designs closely mirrors some of Fortuny’s main inspirations as well – which most likely led to Poiret’s willingness to manage a boutique with Fortuny’s creations. Carrara (2021) also mentions that closely after this association began, Fortuny started to sell his designs in the Liberty of London store, as well as other shops in London, Paris, and eventually New York. These retailers catered to upper-class society; it is likely that his New York store is where this URI collection velvet jacket was originally purchased.

To this day, the company of Fortuny sells a contemporary collection of original patterned and colored textiles. Fortuny’s balance of fusing both art and science produced a successful legacy that continues to live on.  

References

Augusta Auctions. 2019. "Fortuny Stenciled Evening Coat, Italy, 1920s." Augusta Auctions. New York City, November 13. https://augusta-auction.com/search-past-sales?view=lot&id=19935&auction_file_id=60.

Carrara, Gillion. 2021. "Fortuny, Mariano." Encyclopedia of Clothing and Fashion. February 17. https://www.encyclopedia.com/people/literature-and-arts/european-art-1600-present-biographies/mariano-fortuny.

Fortuny. n.d. "History." Fortuny. Accessed February 28, 2021. https://fortuny.com/history/.

n.d. "Fortuny Stenciled Velvet Jacket, c. 1930." Vintage Textile. Accessed February 28, 2021. https://www.vintagetextile.com/new_page_98.htm.

National Gallery of Australia. 1983. "Mariano Fortuny." National Gallery of Australia. https://cs.nga.gov.au/detail.cfm?img=90183_A&irn=90183&vid=2.

Source

Donor: Olga P. Brucher
Ms. Brucher was Dean of the College of Home Economics

Identifier

URI 1954.58.02

Contributor

Shelby Kanski

Creator

Mariano Fortuny (1871-1949), 
label "Mariano Fortuny, Venise" at the back of the neck

Medium

silk velvet
silk faille lining
fiber identification was not done but Fortuny ioverwhelmingly used silk for his jackets
natural and aniline dyes used for hand dyeing and hand stenciling, some mixed with metal powder

Citation

Mariano Fortuny (1871-1949), label "Mariano Fortuny, Venise" at the back of the neck, “Woman's Fortuny Lounge or Evening Jacket,” Historic Textile and Costume Collection, accessed March 28, 2024, https://uritextilecollection.omeka.net/items/show/463.