Showroom

Fortuny

Trade account to buy

Hand printed cottons and velvets made at the original Giudecca factory in Venice since 1921.

Fortuny prints cotton and velvet on the Giudecca in Venice, in a factory that has used the same process since Mariano Fortuny patented it, and the New York showroom is one of only two the house authorises anywhere. The other is the factory in Venice. There is no third.

That is the fact that governs everything else. A Fortuny specification cannot be shopped against a second supplier, because there is not one, and it cannot be substituted late in a project without changing the design. The showroom is in the D&D Building and has been since the building opened in 1965, which makes it one of the few original tenants still in place.

The printing is done by machine, but the machines and the method are the founder's, and the results carry the irregularity that comes with it. Two lengths of the same pattern are not identical. Anyone specifying it across a large run, or matching an existing installation, is planning around that rather than around a dye lot number.

It is in the D&D Building at 979 Third Avenue, which is open to the public, and buying requires a trade account.

A house with one factory and two showrooms has decided not to grow, and the consistency people specify Fortuny for is the direct result of that decision. The same choice is why the lead time is what it is.