Evening coat

Mariano Fortuny|Fortuny

ca. 1925 · silk · Costume Institute

Spanish-born artist and designer Mariano Fortuny was active in Italy, where he established a textile workshop and a commercial silk printing factory--a version of which still operates today. Best known for his beautiful textiles and unstructured garments, Fortuny continually referenced historical and non-Western sources, reviving and creating complex fabric treatments and dyeing techniques. The T-shape of this evening coat and placement of the stencilled motifs are taken from the Coptic tunic, while the motifs themselves, executed in stencilled silver pigment, are Persian-inspired. The brightness of the metallic details nearly a century after their application is a testament to Fortuny's skill with formulating pigments.

Artist

Mariano Fortuny|Fortuny

Date

ca. 1925

Medium

silk

Culture

Italian

Department

Costume Institute

Credit line

Brooklyn Museum Costume Collection at The Metropolitan Museum of Art, Gift of the Brooklyn Museum, 2009; Gift of Mrs. Jesse Orrick, 1966