Fortuny Treatment and Research
Conserving the "Delphos" Gown article for The Costume Institute Conservation Research.
This 1920s “Delphos” dress was selected for exhibition in The Costume Institute’s spring 2026 show, Costume Art. However, the dress had a large area of loose, flattened pleating at the proper left hip, which marred its original appearance, and unraveling, detached cords with loosened beads along the side seams.
The gown was the first of four pleated Fortuny gowns treated over the course of my fellowship at The Costume Institute. Three of these gowns had unraveling, detached cords with loosened beads and absent areas of stitching, and two of these dresses had areas of loose, flattened pleating which significantly marred their original appearance.
From the treatment of the first dress, a stitching technique was developed to treat the unpleated areas. This technique drew upon research into pleating and the history and production of Fortuny gowns to identify a method to create organic, dimensional pleats that mimicked those in the original dresses to serve as test samples. These pleated samples were then damaged to mimic the unpleating in the original gowns, and were used to successfully test how to reshape the pleats through adjusting the variables of heat, moisture, pressure, and time.
Further details of this research, including treatment reports and detailed documentation, are available on request.
The “Delphos” gown, before (left) and after (right) treatment. Designed by Adèle Henriette Elisabeth Nigrin Fortuny (French, 1877–1965) and Mariano Fortuny y Madrazo (Spanish, 1871–1949) for Fortuny (Italian, founded 1906). “Delphos” gown, 1920s. Silk, glass. The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, Gift of Frances J. Kiernan, 2005 (2005.328)
Pleating sample, left, and a pleating sample after being wetted and ironed to mimic the damage on the “Delphos” gown. Image by Katherine Shark.
The “Delphos” gown, second from right, on display in Costume Art.