👗History of the Delphos Dress

 👗Fashion is always a new twist on the old.

Any woman knows how difficult it is to keep any outfit in perfect order and pristine condition.
How did this dress that does not require special care come about?
The dress known as "Delphos" or "Isadora Duncan dress" became popular in the 1920s of the 20th century, actually, thanks to Duncan.
It was Isadora Duncan (1877-1927), an American dancer who became the founder of free dance, who first showed it to the world.
Inspired by ancient Greek choreography, she developed her own unique system of plasticity and preferred to dance barefoot, dressed in light translucent chitons. This "special" dress became an indispensable part of her image.
This amazing dress was created by the Italian artist and designer Mariano Fortuny for his wife in 1907 after she complained about the discomfort of a traditional corset, which was too tight around her waist. She dreamed of a dress that would allow her to move freely.
Then Mariano came up with a style and silhouette reminiscent of the outfit of an antique statue (see photo of the statue "Delphic Charioteer").
On the one hand, the outfit turned out to be quite loose, on the other - vertical folds emphasized the figure, giving it a slenderness. The material gave the dress additional lightness - "Delphos" was usually made of the finest pleated silk.
In 1909, Mariano Fortuny patented his method of pleating silk and never shared it with anyone. Therefore, after the death of the master, the secret was lost.
The first to appreciate this dress were the women of Great Britain, who used it as a home dress ("tea dress") for receiving guests. How and under what circumstances Isadora learned about the miracle dress is not exactly known. But from the moment she first performed in it, the dress became firmly associated with a bright and independent woman. And later, one could say, it became Duncan's calling card.
The Delphos dress came into fashion thanks to Sarah Bernhardt. Of course, there was also the time factor - the corset was a thing of the past, as were some other etiquette requirements, and women could afford to appear in a loose dress in public.
Then the Parisian fashion designer Paul Poiret brought the Delphos dresses to Paris, and the fashion house "Babani" began selling them. The first buyers, of course, were actresses. From that moment on, the dress went down in history forever.
In the late 80s of the 20th century, Japanese fashion designer Miyake became interested in the technological side of design and looked for new opportunities in the field of textiles.
He managed to obtain a fundamentally new material - high-quality polyester, which, with special heat treatment, produced dense fine pleating. This fabric held its shape perfectly even after washing and storing in a suitcase.
At first, the designer offered costumes made of the new material to dancers of William Forsythe's Frankfurt Ballet. He discovered that thanks to the stable shape and weightless fabric, clothes literally become a second skin for a person and behave in a completely special way when moving.
This was in 1990, and in 1993, Miyake sewed the first collection of his separate line, which he called Pleats, Please.
Initially, each item from the collection was a piece of fabric two to three times larger than the final item. The fabric was interleaved with thin sheets of paper according to the sandwich principle, and then sent under a special hot press. The entire process was done by hand, as Miyake, by his own admission, never abandoned humans for computers. After processing, the fabric forever retained both its texture and shape — horizontal, vertical, or zigzag pleating, the outline of a column, a bell, or a chess piece.
Miyake's invention gave a powerful impetus to the evolution of fashion — both aesthetically and industrially.
Miyake may not have been the first to popularize pleating, but he did elevate it to the absolute.
For this reason, the designer became part of the landmark exhibition of the Benaki Museum in Athens, "Ptikoseis = folds + pleating. Drapery from ancient Greek dress to 21st century fashion" in 2004.
Fashion always develops in a spiral, like history.

Sources of information: robb.report; shik-fason;
Buro (July 27, 2017); vogue; messynessychic.com.