Fortuny outfit

Since my last post, I've made a very full, navy, corduroy skirt, have played with mermaid sequins, and made some progress on a burda downloadable pattern in German.  I've cut out some repeats of TNT patterns but haven't worked on them much yet.

In December, I'm going to our big annual meeting and am going to attend the awards banquet this year (celebrating a colleague who is getting inducted as a fellow).  Since I have a bit of time, I've decided to look into creating a Fortuny-style outfit for myself.  I've wanted something along these lines for, literally, decades, and I suppose this is as good of a time as any to try!

So far I've just ordered 4 yards of silk and a bunch of samples.  I'm going for a skirt and sleeveless top in the pleated silk, probably without the beaded embellishments.  And then I need a velvet topper of some sort - something that isn't just an overcoat, but that I can wear all evening since I'm not wandering around the awards dinner in what would essentially be my skivies!!!

Silk:

This is the "Dachshund" color from Mood fabrics in their china silk line (the cheapest of their silks). I plan on making a straight rectangle for the skirt with a folded over channel at the top that has several openings in it at the sides for easy insertion of elastic.  My plan is to pleat it using Arashi Shibori methods (wrap around pipe, wrap with string, squish), and then insert the elastic and fasten with a snap once it dries.  It'll have to be redone with every washing.  For the top, I'll have a similar channel with a cord that I can insert to draw up the neckline a it.  The pieces have to essentially be rectangles to allow for easy re-pleating.  I wonder if the original dresses were completely deconstructed each time?  Apparently you could send them back to Italy for a free washing/repleating.

For the jacket, I haven't yet decided whether I'm going to use a preprinted velvet, a plain velvet, or go all full Fortuny and stencil a velvet myself.  Here's one of my favorites of the samples I got:

I really had to get samples this time since it is absolutely critical that the drape be right.  It's far more expensive, but I keep being drawn to this color of silk velvet that they have:

These are all colors that are present in my skin/hair - I'm really almost the same color all over (lips just a pinker version of the same tones) and in pictures I really do seem to often look best in things that just blend in with the rest of me.

There are lots of glorious photos of Fortuny garments and coats - the following isn't the colors I'm going for, but probably captures the overall shape that I'm hoping to achieve: