Fortuny

The art of carrying pleats.

From the Delphos to the Praline handbag, the original Fortuny pleats continue to evolve through contemporary creations, still handmade in Venice.
This hand-pleated velvet handbag carries forward Mariano Fortuny’s artistic legacy, one carefully crafted pleat at a time.

In this look: the Auriga Delphos dress in Blue Gray and the Iris short kimono, the Praline handbag and the Ballerinas in Riassunto Grigio.

When Venice became Europe’s summer salon.

Photographed in 1928 at the Hotel Excelsior, this image recalls a time when the Lido di Venezia welcomed artists, writers and travellers from across Europe. During Mariano Fortuny’s lifetime, Venice became synonymous with elegant summers, where fashion, culture and leisure met by the Adriatic.

📷 A model pictured posing astride a sphinx in the garden of the Hotel Excelsior on the Lido di Venezia, 1928, Fondo Giacomelli

155 years since the birth of Marcel Proust.

Among the artists who shaped Marcel Proust’s imagination was Mariano Fortuny. In ‘The Prisoner’, one of the central volumes of ‘In Search of Lost Time’, Albertine wears a Fortuny gown:

« La robe de Fortuny que portait ce soir-là Albertine me semblait comme l’ombre tentatrice de cette invisible Venise. »

« The Fortuny gown Albertine wore that evening seemed to me like the seductive shadow of that invisible Venice. »

For Proust, Fortuny’s creations were more than garments. They became symbols of memory, beauty and the passage of time.

To celebrate Proust’s anniversary, revisit the remarkable story that connects Marcel Proust, Reynaldo Hahn and Mariano Fortuny:

https://www.fortuny.shop/blog/stories/the-encounter-between-fortuny-proust-and-hahn/