Washing Fortuny Fabric:

Fortuny's
cotton fabric care label says to vacuum frequently and Dry Clean Only.
But in my experience you can gently launder the
cotton fabrics. This is often necessary to cleanse the vintage
cotton fabric from decades of soil.
I stress cotton fabrics only!
Metallic Pigment Overlay: Those
cotton patterns with metallic pigments should be gently soaked flat in cold
water only, no detergent what so ever. Dry Flat do not twist or wring out the fabric.
Non Metallic Overlay: Those
cotton patterns with out metallic overlay, i.e. parchment, ivory and antique white can
be soaked in cold water with mild detergent like Oxi Clean or Ivory Snow. I have cleaned many piece of Fortuny
cotton over the years and have not experienced any loss of dye as long as the water is very cold. Since Fortuny's
fabrics have been in production for one hundred years there is the possibility that you could run into a bad dye lot
that did not set as well as others. Always test a small piece before you proceed. To maintain the original stiffness
line dry out of the sun. To soften toss in the dryer with on un-heated setting.
Dry Clean Only?: If you are fortunate enough to own a piece of Fortuny
cotton, congratulations! It's your's so
you can Dry clean the textile if you wish, but be forewarned, the chemicals used in the dry cleaning process are
harmful to all textiles and even more so vintage textiles. They will react with metallic pigment and degrade the dyes
integrity over time. Again it's yours so do what you want, but I would
never dry clean
any vintage or antique textile.
About Dry Cleaning:The process typically uses either a petroleum-based solvent or perchloroethylene (perc), a
synthetic solvent. The dry-cleaning solvents remove oily stains without shrinking most fabrics. Over time, though,
perc’s aggressive cleaning power can weaken or dissolve fabric glues and finishes stripping them dull. (Keep in
mind Fortuny's fabrics are the way they are do to a type of glue base that allows the metallic finish to be where it is
on the fabric.) Soap goes in-between fibers, the dry cleaning solvents attach to the fibers breaking them down over
time because they stay on the fabrics. :
Exposure to sun: In my experience the sun has proven to be the most damaging to Fortuny
cotton fabric