Saturday, December 12, 2009

Fortuny Frock of the Week


Natalia Vodianova stepped out in vintage Fortuny this week at the British Fashion Awards. In the close-up you can see just how amazingly fine the pleats are and how flattering the icy blue colour is against Natalia's beautiful blue eyes. I doubt whether this dress - which I fancy is from the 1920's - was meant to be worn off the shoulder, but it does look lovely. Natalia, if you remember, is no stranger to Fortuny. She wore a gorgeous crimson creation to the Costume Institute Ball earlier this year, but apparently on that evening her dress - horror of horrors - was destroyed at the after party! She is a brave lady to have worn one of these delicate tea gowns again.

These unique pieces of fashion history are hard to come by and certainly aren't cheap. This divine blue 1920's number below is available from Vintage Textile and will set you back a cool US$12,000. It includes elements found in both of Natalia's lovely gowns and truly is a breathtaking construction. I've included a couple of close up images so you can marvel at the super fine pleats, which are virtually impossible to replicate.

3 comments:

Everyday Goddess said...

Truly beautiful!
I wonder how it looks on a non super model like me?

Louise said...

I wondered that too and pretty much figured that although the dresses are beautiful, those detailed pleats would not be so forgiving on my hips. Anything too clingy is not the friend of a pear-shaped woman.

Unknown said...

The thing about Fortuny is that his dresses are so beautiful that they almost want some hips or something to cling to. If you look at the picture of the models that he photographed his dresses in they are much more curvy than Natalia Vodianova, as beautiful as she is I think I like the older photos better. And the pleats are not revealing like spandex anyway.