← Dressed: The History of Fashion
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- [00:02]
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April Callahan
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Cassidy Zachary
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April Callahan
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Cassidy Zachary
Favorites are ready at Starbucks.
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April Callahan
The History of Fashion is a production of Dressed media With over 8 billion people in the world, we all have one thing in common. Every day, we all get dressed.
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Cassidy Zachary
Welcome to Dressed the History of Fashion, a podcast that explores the who, what, when of why we wear. We are friends, fashion historians and your hosts, April Callahan and Cassidy Zachary.
- [01:13]
April Callahan
Hello dressed listeners. Today's podcast is dedicated to one of the most famous names in fashion history, an instantly recognizable luxury label and heritage brand that is very much still alive and well today. So April, when I mention the name Fortuny to you, what instantly comes to mind?
- [01:34]
Cassidy Zachary
Well, that would definitely be Fortuny's most famous creation, Delpho Scounds. Of course, they were first produced in 1909, and the Fortuny name is synonymous with these creation inspired gowns with pleats so fine and so well executed that their creation was a very well guarded secret for quite a long time. And while many of us are likely familiar with the company's male namesake, Mariano Fortuni, sometimes you might also seen him as Mariano Fortuny, a madrazo. But dress listeners, I wonder how many of you have heard of his wife, Henriette Negrine, who is equally, if not more important than her famous husband. Numerous articles, monographs and exhibitions have for far too long remembered Mariano as a singular genius and a Renaissance man. Whereas his wife Henriette has been remembered and quite literally painted by Mariano as his model and muse. And in reality she was his partner in both life and work. And a designer in her own right.
- [02:37]
April Callahan
Yes, and if this is your first time hearing Henriette's name, fear not, you are not alone. I don't know about you, April, but I had personally never heard of her prior to the Met's 2023 Costume Institute exhibition, Women Dressing Women, which celebrated the great women designers of the 20th and 21st centuries. And we have a wonderful two part interview with those exhibition curators as well as numerous other episodes covering the exhibition subjects such as Elsa Schiaparelli, Elizabeth Hawes, Anne Lowe, Zelda Wynn Valdez, just to name a few. But I must say I was absolutely flipped, floored by the presence of a Fortuning Delphos gown in the exhibition, because I had absolutely no idea prior about Henriette's significant role in the creation of one of the most iconic dresses in fashion history.
- [03:24]
Cassidy Zachary
But this is a tale as old as time casts. With so much of history being written historically by men, is it any wonder that we have been left with so many male centered narratives, even in a woman driven industry like the fashion industry? But that is why we are here today to course correct those narratives for a little bit of herstory. Henriette's herstory to be exact.
- [03:48]
April Callahan
Yes, and let's start at the beginning, shall we? Adele Henriette Elizabeth Nicrin was born in Fontainebleau on 4 October 1877. And this would have been six years after her future husband, Mariana Fortuni, whose earlier life we of course know know, unsurprisingly, significantly more about. So he was a Spaniard by birth, but he moved as a young man with his family to Paris. They later moved to Venice. All this while he's moving, he's discovering and cultivating his many creative talents and passions. His apparently his parents were collectors of art and textiles, so he is developing these passions. It includes things like painting, but also textile and fabric design. And of course these art forms are not mutually exclusive as we know. And so this exposure really sparked in him a lifelong love for fabric as an extension of his painter's canvas.
- [04:42]
Cassidy Zachary
And Fortuni was what we might call a Renaissance man. And his thirst for knowledge and creative expression saw him working in a variety of artistic mediums, including photography, sculpture, architecture and even theater, lighting, design. And it's the latter that faithfully brought him back to Paris at the turn of the century, where in 1897 his path converged with Henriette. And she really ran in the same artistic social circles as Fortune, although at the time of their meeting, she was actually married to another man. And I think that we all know where this is going. That marriage proved no match for the love that quickly grew between Henriette and Mariano. And it wasn't long before Henriette divorced her husband and moved with Mariano to Venice, where they would literally make fashion history together with their own bare hands at their home and studio, which was based in the Palazzo Presario degli d' Orfe, which is a Historic architectural masterpiece. It was built in the 13th century and remains the site of the Fortuny Museum, which is called Palazzo Fortuny to this very day.
- [05:47]
April Callahan
Henriette, like her husband, was also an incredibly talented textile artist and designer in her very own right. And together they started a textile workshop at the palazzo in 1907, producing their very first creation, the Noso scarf. And from this very first textile venture, it's clear that the duo's work was rooted in a reverence for ancient culture, handcraftsmanship and design. Taking its inspiration from both ancient Greek and Indian dress practices, this large silk taffeta Noso scarf featured a bold hand block printed design inspired by decorative motifs found on early Corinthian, Greek, Minoan and Cretan vases.
- [06:27]
Cassidy Zachary
And several of the original hand carved wood blocks and early fabric test samples survive in the museum's collection, which are really lovely because it gives you an idea of the shawl's luminous color palette. And by the way, all of this was being achieved with natural dyes. The museum also has several fantastic photographs capturing these shawls in the process, including a wonderful photograph of Henriette at work in the studio and deep in concentration as she applies paint to a woodblock in anticipation of printing.
- [06:57]
April Callahan
Both of which can be seen in this wonderfully illustrated essay on Google Arts and Culture. It's done by the Palazzo Fortuni and it's all about the significance of this scarf. It's entitled. It all began with a silk scarf, the Nosos, the consecration of the name Fortuny. So this is where it all starts. Started and as the article tells us, quote, after some months of intense experimentation on textiles, colors and the most peculiar motifs, Mariano and Henriette finally realized 15 different models of the Nosos. Presentation took place in Berlin on 24 November 1907, featuring Ruth St Denis or St Denis showing the audience how to wear the refined scarves. End quote. As an early pioneer of modern dance, Ruth was the perfect model for the experimental scarf that she wore both as headscarf and draped around the body. And so this really has more in common with ancient Greek and Indian dress practices, as we mentioned, than any contemporary fashion design of this period. And represents a radical contrast to the corseted then, quote, unquote s bin silhouette than in fashion at this period.
- [08:04]
Cassidy Zachary
Several decades later, Fortuny would immortalize Henriette wearing the noseso in a painting entitled Henriette Dressed as a Pompeian from 1935. And the portrait reveals Henriette to be a classical beauty. By all accounts of the term and. And also truly her own best model, who was in no doubt inspired to create the designs that she, as a modern woman of the artistic avant garde taste, wanted to wear.
- [08:29]
April Callahan
This is something further confirmed by surviving photographs of Henriette modeling prototypes of the most famous Fortuny design, which would come a few years later in 1909. And, of course, I'm talking about the pleated Delfos gown, which is a gown so special, so groundbreaking and enduring, that we are still talking about it and in awe of it over 100 years after it was first designed. And, in fact, I would actually argue that it is one of the most famous and iconic gowns in the history of Euro American fashion. Would you agree, April?
- [09:01]
Cassidy Zachary
I would. And there are not many designers whose name can instantly conjure up an image in your brain of a single garment that was so distinctive to them. And so that's one of the reasons why Fortuni and the Delphos are synonymous.
- [09:16]
April Callahan
Yes, it's been immortalized in popular literature, popular TV shows like Downton Abbey, you may remember there's many a famous portrait and photograph of women wearing the Delphos gown, and it's a gem of private and museum collections alike. And in his famous novel In Search of Lost Time, Marcel Proust called the Delphos quote faithfully antique, but markedly original. A perfect reference, I would say, to the gown's timeless appeal and design. But for those who perhaps have never seen of or heard of Adelphos gown, April, what exactly makes it so special?
- [09:49]
Cassidy Zachary
Well, the gown takes its name and design inspiration from a classical Greek sculpture known as the Charioteer of Delphi, which depicts a young man wearing a unisex garment known as a chiton. And chitons were ubiquitous in ancient Greece, and essentially, it was a columnar tunic, or maybe we'd call it a robe or dress of simple construction that was created with one or two rectangles of fabric, and it was sewn or pinned along down the sides and along the shoulder seams, and it left open an opening for the neck and head and arms, of course, on the sides. But the chiton was given shape and its characteristic pleating by a belt or girdle that secured the voluminous fabric to the wearer's body at the waist. So, at first glance, the Fortuny Delphos gown appears similarly simple in design and construction. But. But in fact, it's actually a lot more complex, so much so that we are actually going to let the Fortuny Museum explain it to you far better than we Ever could. Cass, do you want to do the honors?
- [10:54]
April Callahan
Yes. And again, this is another one of these fantastically visually illustrated articles from Google Arts and Culture. And it reads, quote, the Delphos was a monochrome gown of a simple, essential form, a sort of cylinder, initially consisting of four pieces of fabric, which by 1919, 1920 had become five. Made in satin or silk taffeta, sewn along the long sides in a vertical sequence and continuing to form short sleeves. The gown, shaped by internal tapes arranged at an angle from the armpit to the shoulder to define the armhole, rested on the shoulders and fell freely to the feet. The neckline and the sleeves were adjustable, thanks to drawstrings and silk cord embellished with beads of Murano glass paste.
- [11:36]
Cassidy Zachary
And we had the display, distinct pleasure recently of getting up close and personal. And our recent collections tour at the museum at fit. We saw not one, but two Delphos gowns. And these dresses are really charming for a number of reasons, not the least of which is how they are stored in this somewhat unusual manner. You're supposed to twist the gowns and coil them into like a shell shaped bottle ball. And that was to help maintain the dress's signature and incredibly fine semi permanent pleats. And then for those of you who have never seen a Delphos gown, I will do my best here to describe these pleats because they're not typically something that we would see today or be familiar with exactly. The pleats run the entire vertical length of the gown. And they're very, very small. They're irregular in shape and appear somewhat scrunched together. They're pressed up next to each other close, side by side. I guess I would say think of it as a much more. A much more sophisticated version of Issey Miyaki's pleats. Please, Collections. They stretch. They're a little bit stretchy. In addition, the pleats have also been pressed into a ripple or wave like texture that undulates through the dress.
- [12:50]
April Callahan
And for decades upon decades, the exact techniques used to create these signature pleats remained elusive, despite scores of imitators like Miyake over the years trying and failing to recreate exactly this story technique and bring it into their design. So just exactly what made these Fortuny pleats so impossible to imitate? And we're going to learn all about that after a brief sponsor break.
- [13:19]
Cassidy Zachary
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- [14:49]
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- [15:17]
April Callahan
Welcome back. So I was always under the impression that the Fortuny Museum kept the secret. So to the Delos pleats under lock and key. But I was pleasantly surprised recently to find that they actually shared insights into this process in this very same article that I just referenced that writes that the pleats were quote, done manually, which is incredible. Using the fingernail of the thumb them firmed with sewing and pressed the dense vertical waves on each panel that made the vest could reach up to 450 folds.
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Cassidy Zachary
By the way, that's one garment.
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April Callahan
Yes, which is just remarkable. And then they tell us also that quote, the pleating realized only in the longitudinal direction could be enriched with A transverse wave motion, which April mentioned earlier, obtained with the aid of copper tubes or heated ceramic. So I'm thinking like a hair curler was taken to the dresses, but perhaps it was probably a little bit more complicated. So that that doesn't exactly explain. Explained the quote unquote, secret sauce, as one might say. And the museum does remain quite elusive about the exact nature of the technique and process that produced the gown's semi permanent pleats. And one source I came across actually suggested that the secrets to the pleats died with the fortunes, and that even the museum does not actually know how they were created so impeccably that they maintain their shape over a hundred years later.
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Cassidy Zachary
And that is thanks in no small part to something I mentioned earlier, which is the fact that the gowns are meant to be stored quite coiled. And while they are absolutely remarkable to observe coiled, it must be said that nothing rivals its magnetism. When dressed on the female form, the pleats really cling to the wearer's curves, moving in tandem with her natural body underneath. And that is because, in further homage to ancient Greece, the Fortuny Delphos gown was intended to be worn uncorseted. In fact, if any undergarments were worn underneath the gown, they would have been ones that did not break up the line of the dress.
- [17:17]
April Callahan
And the audacity of this in 1909, a time when the corset still more or less reigned supreme, cannot be underscored enough. So, granted, the Delphos was only ever intended to be worn informally, so a tea gown of sorts, worn in the privacy of one's home when receiving company, but it really was originally intended not to be worn with a corset. And so it's standing in direct contrast to that mainstream fashionable silhouette of the period that we mentioned earlier in, and even when put in conversation with the work of designers like Paul Plaret, who was offering his own interpretation of modern Grecian fashion to clients at this time. We also did that whole episode earlier this month on Margaine, Lacroix and the other designers who are doing this. The Delphos gown is by far the most radical expression of this, because it is absolutely simple and therefore quite revolutionary for what it represented.
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Cassidy Zachary
It really laid a blueprint for modern women's fashion, which would be ushered in just a decade later. And it should surprise us not that some of its earliest adopters were some of fashion's most cutting edge luminaries and icons from the era, themselves part of the artistic avant garde, including the aforementioned dancer, modern Dancer, Rude Saint Denis, but also her fellow dancer from the same time period, Isadora Duncan. And just side note on that here, Cass, did you know that Isadora Duncan had an affair with Elsa Schiaparelli's husband?
- [18:44]
April Callahan
I did not. But did you know she had an affair with Paul Paris?
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Cassidy Zachary
She got around. I think she had children by several different men, but I think she only married one of them. It was like way after she had all these kids.
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April Callahan
Anyway, no judgment. This is just all to say at this time, she is a little bit on the fringe of what would have been societally acceptable.
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Cassidy Zachary
A very modern woman.
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April Callahan
Yes.
- [19:07]
Cassidy Zachary
But also other Delftos wearers were the eccentric Italian aristocrat Marchesa Casati. And then of course, the dress's innovator and creator, whose name is not Mariano Fortuny.
- [19:21]
April Callahan
No, the dresses creator is not Mariano Fortuni. And those accolades actually belong with the person who for too long has been labeled his muse. And I think you know where I'm going with this, Juan Henriette Negrine. And let us say that again for those in the back. So Fortuny's most famous design, though one that has earned him his place in the fashion history books as being one of the most groundbreaking and important designers in the 20th century, this gown is not in fact his design at all. And should there be any doubt, one just need look to the patent that Mariano himself took out for the design in 1909, on which he has clearly written in his own hand, quote, this patent is owned by Mrs. Henriette Brassard, who is the inventor. I enclose this patent on my name behalf due to the urgency of the deposit in Paris, June 10, 1909. So let's just let that all sink in.
- [20:14]
Cassidy Zachary
And just how did Henriette's name get entirely lost in history over these years, especially with Fortuny himself so clearly giving her credit in the archival records.
- [20:25]
April Callahan
Yes, this is an exceptionally great question and quite infuriating when you think about it, and we honestly will probably never know the exact answer. But we can speculate based on the things we do know, starting with perhaps the most obvious fact, that his story has not always favored highlighting women's achievements. And how many great women artists have been painted literally and figuratively in the historic record as mere muses of their, quote unquote, great male counterparts.
- [20:53]
Cassidy Zachary
And Henriette's case has also not been helped by the fact that despite Henriette overseeing the couple's textile and clothing workshops, and despite her being responsible for many of the designs produced there, no doubt she created More than just the Delphos. But despite all of this, her creations always bared Mariano's last name and not hers. The couple did not actually marry until the 1920s, a period during which the company was still producing Delfos gowns.
- [21:21]
April Callahan
And speaking to the enduring elegance and timeless appeal of the gown, April, the gown was produced all the way up until 1949. So 40 years. And this is when Henriette sold the company upon Mariano's death, with the stipulation that the new owners would halt production of its most successful design. And there's actually personal correspondence between her and the new owner. And she shares, quote, these garments are of my own creations. Even more than many others, I desire that no one else take them over. And thus, to the sale of the Delphos, we must apply the words the.
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Cassidy Zachary
End a little dramatic. So, according to the Palazzo Fortuny, Henriette, quote, dedicated the rest of her life to fulfilling Mariano's testamentary wishes, donating numerous works to Italian and Spanish museums and creating an inventory of the works of art and the Palazzo, which, upon her death, was bequeathed to the city of Venice. End quote. So, essentially, she spent the rest of her life upholding her husband's legacy and not really her own. And with her own death in 1965, her contributions all but fell into obscurity on where her husband and the Fortuny name grew only more famous without her.
- [22:31]
April Callahan
And there are numerous people, as far as I can tell, that are complicit in her erasure from history. Even the Palazzo Fortuny. So the same museum that acknowledges her to be the inventor of the most famous Fortuny design insists still, as far as I can tell, on painting her in the role of the muse. They dedicated an entire exhibition to her writing. Henriette was the muse who inspired him, his faithful companion who was always by his side and who shared his aesthetic positions. She supported and comforted him, was a friend to whom he could confide his doubts and uncertainties, and the person who protected and safeguarded the inner spaces in which the artist found his creative force. So, a lot of things to say about that, but mainly just that Henriette was the creative force, or an additional creative force exactly in her own right.
- [23:21]
Cassidy Zachary
But hope is not lost. And there has been a noted shift in the last 10 years or so, with fashion scholars, journalists and historians working diligently to write long forgotten and overlooked fashion history makers back into the pages of fashion history in a way that does their work justice, while also directly challenging the often sexist, racist and classist tropes that led to their exclusion in the first place and the Women Dressing Women exhibition as a single stellar example to that fact. It was instrumental in broadcasting so many overlooked female designers work to the world. Including of course Henriette. Although there is oh so much work left to do to truly bring her legacy to light today, these Delphos gowns also remain this coveted item for fashion museums and private collectors. And some of the rare examples when they do come to market, they average a sales record price of about $5,000 each when sold at auction. But I've also seen some really supreme examples that have been sold for more than $11,000 each.
- [24:25]
April Callahan
Yeah, so the tide's changing hopefully now thanks to this exhibition. And I will say that the Met Museum did go through and change and update all of their Delphos gown labels to include Henriette. So you know so much more to do. But it is happening. And this all really begs the question as we conclude this episode, if someone like Henriette who is intimately connected to one most famous names in fashion history, like basically there for all to see if someone looked, if her name can fall into obscurity, what countless other designer stories are out there just waiting to be discovered. And we are excited to see where this all goes as people continue to look for them and find them and share them with us. On that note dress listeners, that does it for us today. May you ponder the names of the mini makers behind the labels residing in your closet. Next time you get dressed, please head.
- [25:16]
Cassidy Zachary
Over to RestorePodcast on Instagram or the Underscore on Facebook to check out the visual content associated with each week's episodes.
- [25:27]
April Callahan
Remember, we love hearing from you dress listeners so if you'd like to write to us you can do so at. Hello dresshistory.com dressedhistory.com is also our website where you can sign up for our monthly newsletter, our in person tours and online fashion history courses. And there you can also check out whatever else we have up our finely tailored sleeves.
- [25:46]
Cassidy Zachary
We get so many questions from you all about our recommendations for fashion history books, so if you're interested you can always find a link in our show notes to our bookshop.org bookshelf so that address is bookshop.org shop dressed and there you will find over 100 of our favorite fashion history titles.
- [26:07]
April Callahan
Do you love dressed but want to skip the ads? We are so excited to now be a part of the Airwave Network and their premium ad free history subscription Airwave History plus and this is available on Apple Podcasts and the subscription brings you Our podcast as well as 27 other popular history podcasts ad free for 5.99 per month. More information is available at the link in our bio.
- [26:32]
Cassidy Zachary
Thank you as always for tuning in and more Dressed coming your way soon. The History of Fashion is a production of Dressed Media.
- [26:43]
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- [27:38]
JJ Virgin
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