c. 1930

Woman's Long Dress

The creations of Mariano Fortuny are endowed with a magical presence, and his textile designs and the cut of his garments span both time and geography. Renaissance Italy and the Middle and Far East provided models for many of his garments as well as for his luxurious velvets stenciled with metallic pigments. This velvet-paneled long gown is stenciled with what was described as a Moorish design; it has his signature silk pleats inset at the sides and sleeves, held in place with cords looped over glass beads from the island of Murano, near Venice, the Spanish designer's adopted city.