For more than fifteen years, Belgian artist Isabelle de Borchgrave has been producing a completely original body of work that is easy to explain but difficult to categorize. Her central project revolves around recreating exquisite, life-size historical costumes and fabrics entirely out of paper. Taking inspiration from depictions in early European paintings, iconic costumes, period photographs, sketches, and descriptions, de Borchgrave skillfully works paper to achieve her aims: crumpling, pleating, braiding, feathering, and painting the surface to mimic textile effects and fool the eye of the viewer. The artist has forms spanning more than 500 years of fashion history. This exhibition presents one of these six collections, inspired by Mariano Fortuny, a Spanish-born eccentric whose designs were the height of fashion in the early 20th century. In the exhibition's North American debut, BAM is pleased to present Isabelle de Borchgrave's Fortuny collection in its entirety, offering a rare glimpse into the minds of not one, but two influential artistic figures.

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Though her name is automatically associated with them now, de Borchgrave has not always made paper dresses. She started out as a student at the Academy of Drawing and Decorative Arts and the Royal Academy of Arts of Brussels, specializing in painting and drawing. These skills are still very much part of de Borchgrave’s work as she paints minute and intricate patterns on her paper creations.

de Borchgrave started out in the ’70s in a studio at the Place du Sablon, Brussels. There, she created textile patterns for fabric producers such as Pierre Frey and Designers Guild. The idea of creating clothes out of paper came to de Borchgrave during a 1994 trip to New York City and its Metropolitan Museum of Art. Her visit of the Yves Saint-Laurent retrospective at the MoMA inspired her to tell the story of fashion design. Partnering up with Rita Brown, a Canadian costume-maker, she created the history lesson called Papier à la Mode. When she started working with paper, the fashion world, which had gotten to know her thanks to her textile designs, was baffled and impressed. Through this exploration, de Borchgrave became famous for her paper techniques and creations. 

Working in collaboration with leading costume historians and young fashion designers, de Borchgrave crafts a world of splendor from simple paper. Painting and manipulating the paper, she forms trompe l’oeil masterpieces of elaborate dresses inspired by depictions in early European painting or by iconic costumes in museum collections around the world. A World of Paper, A World of Fashion immerses the viewer in the world of 19th century Venice. Plissés, veils, and elegance are the common motifs of that moment. Imitating gold-braiding, pearls, silk, and velvet, de Borchgrave deftly executes trompe l’œil, achieving richness and nostalgia in her work.