Tag: fortuny

The beaded trim on Fortuny’s Delphos gowns isn’t just decorative.

Silk (or, at least, the silk I used) gets very springy when pleated and stands away from the body. This works against the iconic slim silhouette. The seams need weight to hug the body, and the beads provide the weight.

I used plastic beads on my ages-ago polyester Fortuny but they weren’t hefty enough to do the job. They really need to be glass or clay, and I was determined to use the Murano glass beads Fortuny traditionally used.

Easier said than done.

Almost every original Delphos shows a pale, matte, square bead with subdued stripes, and every modern bead sold as “murano glass” was either the wrong shape, too glossy, or had too much contrast. If they make ’em like they used to, I couldn’t find them. Disappointing. But I found a reasonable alternative.

African gooseberry beads (link is to the ones I ordered, but Google nets a variety of vendors and color combinations) provide an adequate substitute. They’re matte glass and the orange and brown stripes were about as subtle as I could find.

As near as I can tell from examining Fortuny originals, the beads are strung on a cord that is couched to the seam with beads secured at regular intervals. Couching sewing machine feet notwithstanding I am again doing these by hand to avoid crushing these hard to find beads. I’m using a ruler to ensure that they’re evenly spaced.

Of course, as soon as I start this I discover Threads magazine documented a similar technique back in 2014 that eliminates the cord, but I’m continuing with Fortuny’s tried and true.

I sewed the 4 panels together. This was time-consuming but simple as it was all selvage to selvage, so no hand finishing was needed on top of that. But then I needed to shape this tube into something resembling a dress.

I opted to go the simple route: opening all 4 seams about 10″ at the top gave me a v neck, v back, and armholes, easily adjusted later if they cut too deep or not deep enough. The original Fortunys from the 1910s-40s seldom had a v neck but I didn’t want to mess with the (likely?) difficulty of shaping a scoop neck in already-pleated fabric! However, the v-neck is consistent with the “reimagined” dress* they made for Lady Mary in the Downton Abbey movie**.

So, I needed to shape 2 raw edges into 2 tapered shoulders, how to do that? I turned under the raw edges and then sewed a running stitch on either side of the seam to pull into tight gathers. Once gathered, I sewed the pleats to a strip of twill tape as I not only needed some kind of reinforcement for the delicate fabric but something stronger than only thread to keep the gathers in place in slippery silk.

I think it turned out rather well.

Next up: turning under the edges of the neckline and armholes and reinforcing these if needed.

*My heart leaps at the thought that the Fortuny company might start making the Delphos/Peplos again! But this article is from 2017 and I’m not seeing any movement in that direction.

**I haven’t seen the movie.

So remember that sewing project I last posted about in August? Yeah, these things take more time than you’d expect. As of late September I finally had all of the fabric gathered:

Only this past weekend did I soak the full length in water, stick one end in a door to hold it still, and twist. Then double up and twist it again, etc. Fun fact: silk is so fine that it twists down very, very small, especially when wet. That’s how you fit this:

Into a kneesock:

And there it will stay for a week at least. I don’t want to toss it in the dryer because friction and heat might damage the fabric, and as tight as it’s compressed I expect it will lake a long time to air dry. My test piece took at least 2 days and it was only 6″ wide:

The fabric will lose a lot of width, but that’s why I got 8 yards of it. Fortuny himself used 4-6 widths of pleated fabric on each dress so I estimated pretty conservatively.

my Remember that fabric I posted a few months ago? This is what I’m doing with it:

I’m trying to make a mock Fortuny Delphos gown, this time out of silk. I made one years ago out of polyester because heat-set pleats stay in synthetic fabrics, but it’s rather stiff and doesn’t have the same flowing drape as silk.

It’s time consuming because to ensure the gathering threads won’t catch the fabric they have to be done by hand, and to ensure tight pleats throughout I need more gathering threads than just the ends. This costumer gathered every 4 inches or so and got fantastic results, though I think she used a drying technique that involved hair perm solution, to make the pleats stay. I think this would irritate my skin so I’m doing it Fortuny’s way (or what we think was Fortuny’s way – the patent images are vague, probably deliberately) – which means if I ever wash it I repleat, by hand, every 4″.

I’ve loved Fortuny gowns since I was a teenager. I’ve even “visited” garments behind the scenes trying to figure out how they were pleated and assembled. The theory I’m working with was that the pleating was performed first, then the fabric panels sewn together by hand.

I’ll let y’all know how it goes.