Monday night I returned home from our Textile & Costume tour in Italy. There so many special things in this trip. One of my favorites was our visit to the Fortuny Museum, which was the home and workshop of designer and polymath Mariano Fortuny y Madrazo.
In the 1980s when I was at my first fashion design job, I had the opportunity to design my first silk print collection. The dresses were being made from my prints, in the same factory making Oscar de la Renta’s silk dress collection.
My first silk print collection was inspired by one of my heroes – Fortuny! You may recall that in the late 70s there was a revival of his style – with the micro-pleated silk dresses that were figure-hugging columns. He had a vast library and also studied historic brocades and velvets, then producing his own line of Venetian-inspired textiles.
While in his home Palazzo Pesaro, which is now the museum, I was swooning over his reference library. (A small snippet in the image above.) His home was in this Venetian Palace, built around 1470. The museum opened in 1975. It was in a state of decay when he saw it for the first time in 1898. Over the following years he began the restoration, making it his home, and installing a textile workshop in 1907. Here they mixed dyes, printed silk and velvet fabrics, and created theatrical scenes…inspired by the splendor of the Italian Renaissance.
You can imagine how thrilled I was to find the original reference fabric in the display, that inspired my own collection in 1982. Up until that moment, I had only seen it in a reference book. It was 45 years from when I had first found a book about Fortuny’s work, and was inspired by his Venetian Renaissance patterns. Those moments when we come ‘full circle’ in our life, are momentous….and rare. My passion for Fortuny is part of my passion for textiles, and I finally completed my pilgrimage.
Sharing your love of fabric…
Luana and Paul
Travel/Lecture Dates:
Jan 9 – Fraser Valley Modern Guild – Art & Activism Zoom Lecture
Jan 21 – Visions Museum Zoom Lecture
Feb 25 – Mar 5 – Kyoto Quilt Festival
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