Over 20 years ago, an exhibition in London renewed interest in the work of Mariano Fortuny. The painter, photographer, designer of fabrics and clothes, theatrical scenery and stage lighting was born in 1871 in Granada. While he lived in Spain he studied painting and drawing and, over periods of time spent in France and Germany, he acquainted himself with the art of dyes. In 1889 he settled in Venice where he became well-known for his drawings, paintings, photographs and stage sets for the theatre and opera.
In the early 1890s, Fortuny began printing textiles and creating pleated gowns and cloaks dyed with vegetable dyes. A pleating system he patented in 1909 was the secret behind the “Delphos” gown, a flowing silk satin garment that called to mind the elegant lines of classical Greek statuary and that allowed its creator to study and balance the equation body/woman/movement/beauty. Fortuny’s dresses even get a mention in Marcel Proust‘s À la recherche du temps perdu: Proust’s narrator dresses his lover Albertine in the designer and painter’s creations.
An exhibition at Venice’s Palazzo Fortuny – a museum dedicated to Fortuny’s life and works that also features a space for special shows of modern and contemporary art – celebrates the artist and couturier in a very special way. "A World of Paper: Isabelle de Borchgrave Meets Mariano Fortuny" features over 80 pieces, among them dresses and accessories, entirely made in paper by Belgian painter, designer and stylist Isabelle de Borchgrave.
Born in 1946, de Borchgrave specialised in designing fabrics. Ten years ago she created a travelling exhibition entitled “Papiers à la Mode” that analyses 300 years of fashion through 180 paper lifesize costumes and accessories, made in collaboration with Rita Brown. Since then, paper has become one of the main materials used by the artist.
In Borchgrave’s hands simple white 1 meter by 1.5 meters sheets of paper miraculously turns into silk, damask and lace thanks to her skilled use of brushes and colors that give to the humble material the illusion of being a precious fabric.
The exhibition in Venice includes also a paper version of the "Delphos" dress, together with accessories, shoes, stage sets and rugs and a trompe l’oeil scene featuring Fortuny sitting in his study facing a Venetian glass window.
The dresses are meticulously recreated, de Borchgrave somehow managed to reproduce in paper all the colours of Fortuny’s silk and velvet robes, and she even made in paper the mackintosh worn by poet, dandy and soldier Gabriele D’Annunzio. The exhibition can be considered as a sort of homage to Fortuny, but it’s also a way for Borchgrave to share interests and passions with this amazing designer and innovator.
You still have a couple of weeks to visit the exhibition, but if you ever miss it, you can check the catalogue edited by Pascaline Vatin Barbini.
Those who like the idea of paper dresses and have a lot of money to invest, can buy one of Valentino’s haute couture dresses from the Fall 2008 collection.
Valentino’s successor Alessandra Facchinetti looked at contemporary paper sculptures for some of the dresses in the collection, as it can be seen from the clear-cut silhouettes of some of the immaculate white dresses and skirt suits, but also from the paper-like embroideries and appliques on a few creations. 
If you are short on money, grab instead one of Tom Tierney’s paper doll books and pretend you’re a designer cutting fabric rather than paper. You might not become as skilled as de Borchgrave or Facchinetti, but you will have an incredible amount of fun.
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