The ballroom of the Galleria del Costume (Costume Gallery) at Palazzo Pitti, Florence, hosts from today an exhibition dedicated to the restoration of the court mantle that belonged to Donna Franca Florio.
The exhibition showcases the sumptuously restored ivory satin mantle, probably made in 1902 by the Paris-based House of Worth. The mantle is a testament to the lavish fashion of the times, but also shows the techniques of the great Parisian couturiers. The mantle is displayed with two other designs - in satin and tulle - by the House of Worth.
A member of the Sicilian aristocracy dubbed by poet and writer Gabriele D'Annunzio "L'Unica" (The One and Only), Donna Franca Jacona della Motta was born in Palermo in 1873.
In 1893 she married wealthy industrialist Ignazio Florio, famous for his lavish lifestyle, and became in 1902 a lady-in-waiting to the Queen of Italy.
The family went through a slow but inexorable decline after the First World War, but Franca Florio remained an icon of style of the Italian Belle Époque and painter Giovanni Boldini sensually portrayed her wearing a black velvet two-piece dress with deep V-neck (this dress is showcased in another section of the Costume Gallery as part of the "Donne protagoniste del Novecento" exhibition, together with a blue silk court cape by the Milan-based Ventura atelier, edged with golden cords arranged as Savoy nodes).
Franca Florio was a famous client of Worth (View this photo): Jeanne Paquin sketched for the House of Worth a day dress for the races called "Florio" for the 1899 Winter season. There is no evidence the blue design trimmed with patterned braid and bow with fringed ends, and matched with a black hat with feathers was inspired by Donna Franca, but it is possible that there was a connection between the dress and the style icon of those times (you can see the design by clicking here: View this photo).
Donna Franca donned the court mantle currently on display at the Galleria del Costume also in Vienna and Berlin. The design, made in ivory silk satin, is characterised by a wheat damasked motif, and is richly embroidered with sequins, ribbons, and flowers.
The restoration process was painfully long since it consisted in separating the mantle from the lining, micro-hoovering the fibres and consolidating the surface of the mantle through special supports.
The silk fibres had become extremely fragile and were badly damaged since they had been coated with iron salt, aluminium, zinc and tin, a chemical process applied to silk to compensate the loss of weight due to the elimination of sericin from the fibres. The Worth evening dress (the one on the right in the first picture in this post - View this photo) went through a similar restoration process.
The designs will be on view at the Galleria del Costume, Palazzo Pitti, Florence, Italy, until 3rd August 2014.
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