PLEATS PLEASE

Tina Chow modeling a Fortuny *Delphos* gown • 1975 • Antonio Lopez

How the Spanish turned Venetian designer Mariano Fortuny’s emblematic Delphos dress (named after the Charioteer of Delphi) predated feminism as we know it, by physically and metaphorically removing the traditional corset restricting women at the time, and furthermore, laid the groundwork for American multi-media artist Lynda Benglis. More than half a century after Fortuny and his wife and muse, Henriette Negrin, created the beloved Ancient Greek inspired gown, Benglis began to create her own fabricated metalworks exploring femininity in a male dominated world…

*Miata* • 1986 • Lynda Benglis • Image courtesy of Locks Gallery, Philadelphia

“By the 1980s, Benglis embraced a sleeker aesthetic, plating corrugated steel or aluminum wire infrastructures with layers of nickel, zinc, copper, and chrome. These sculptures offer the masterful illusion that metal has been effortlessly pleated, rolled, twisted, or tied as though made of fabric. In Benglis’s hands, heavy becomes light, and hard becomes soft… Benglis’s art is often interpreted within a feminist context. Her focus on decorative forms and occasional use of craft-type materials represent her interest in redefining mainstream perceptions about femininity. In her knot sculptures, Benglis used metal—a material associated with 1960s and ’70s Minimalist sculpture, which was created almost exclusively by male artists. She manipulated the medium to create forms reminiscent of elements of women’s clothing, such as bows, bustles, ruffles, and fans…” • National Museum of Women in the Arts

An inside view of a *Delphos* gown • Mariano Fortuny & Henriette Negrin

*Tosanna* (Toscana) • 1995 • Lynda Benglis

“Fortuny’s best-known design is the Delphos dress, a column of whisper-thin satin, pleated using a secret, patented technique... These dresses, in marvelous colors, were coiled and sold in small round boxes. They have always been at once à la mode and outside of fashion… While it’s true that the classical inspiration of the Delphos dresses in particular give them a “timeless” aspect, they are not without novelty. Associated with the Aesthetic movement, whose adherents bucked Victorian convention as they avidly pursued beauty, the Delphos was first introduced in 1907. The dress predates the fashion uprising lead by Paul Poiret, who is credited with revolutionizing fashion by freeing women from the corset…” • Vogue

A BIGGER SPLASH

FANCY PANTS