Woman's Dress

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Description:

Gold silk full length gown, tightly pleated with half sleeves that are an extension of the garment's body. The neckline has a white cord drawstring running through small eyelets with yellow and red striped glass beads at intervals. The same cord is laced up each sleeve, with long ties at each shoulder tipped in beads. These beads provide weight that help the garment drape properly.

Designed by Mariano Fortuny, a Spanish textile and fashion designer with a studio in Venice, Italy, this Delphos gown still holds its pleats and is carefully stored in a twisted spiral to preserve the folds. Fortuny closely guarded the secret to his pleating process, patenting only select parts of the technique. This gown was donated to the museum by explorer, spy, and socialite, Gertrude Sanford Legendre, and was possibly worn by her mother, Ethel Sanford, a prominent society wife married to U.S. Congressman John Sanford.