Knossos Veil

The Knossos is a rectangular taffeta veil of salmon-pink silk with stencilled decoration using the katagami dying technique, the same as that used for the kimonos. This was Fortuny’s first creation within the world of clothing. The simple form is similar to a Greek himation or mantle, although it owes its name to the palace the artist visited in 1906 from which he got his inspiration for the various decorative motifs that populate its surface: palm-shapes, borders, rosettes… That same year, Fortuny patented this model, although it was presented at the gala of the Condesa de Verán and, later on, officially in Berlin where the dancer, Ruth St. Denis, came out to dance wrapped in a Knossos.