Mariano Fortuny

Mariano Fortuny y Madrazo (11May 1871 – 3 May 1949) was a Spanish fashion designer who opened his couture house in 1906 and continued until 1946.

Mariano Fortuny
Mariano Fortuny y Madrazo
Mariano Fortuny y Madrazo 1895
Born	(1871-05-11)May 11, 1871
Died	May 3, 1949(1949-05-03) (aged 77)
Occupation	fashion designer

Biography

In 1897, he met Henriette Negrin in Paris, whom he married a few years later and whose role as a full-fledged collaborator was highlighted in an exhibition at the Musée du Palais Fortuny in Venice.

Mariano Fortuny y Madrazo died in his Venetian palace in 1949 and was buried in the Verano Cemetery in Rome.

Works

In 1907, Fortuny created her most spectacular dress: the "Delphos Dress" in pleated silk, made famous by the theatrical legends of the time, Isadora Duncan and Sarah Bernhardt. Designed in a revolutionary form, inspired by the clothes of ancient Greece, the long dress was both simple and wide, artistic and functional; the hems were adorned with colored Venetian glass beads, with a decorative but also functional function.

In 2012, the Queen Sofia Spanish Institute in New York City mounted an exhibition of his work.

His clients include Élisabeth, Countess Greffulhe and her daughter Élaine Greffulhe, Eleonora Duse, Ellen Terry and Oona O'Neill.

In Paris, he owned from 1912 a shop 2 bis rue de Marignan, transferred in 1922 67 rue Pierre-Charron. In London, he opened a boutique in 1912 at 29 Maddox Street (en) and Bond Street.