Henriette Negrin

(Adèle) Henriette Negrin, (or Nigrin), born on October 4, 1877, in Fontainebleau, died in 1965 in Venice, was a French clothes-designer and textile artist.

She developed a pleating machine the patent for which was filed by the National Institute of Industrial Property (France) of Paris on June 10, 1909.

In a signed hand-written note on a copy of the patent (copy kept at the Marciana Library), Mariano Fortuny acknowledged his future wife as the inventor of the machine: " Ce brevet est de la propriété de Madame Henriette Brassart[3] qui est l’inventeur.

[4] This pleating technique plays a central role in the design of the Delphos gown, whose creation Henriette Negrin confirmed as her own[4] in a letter to Elsie McNeill Lee, at the time the exclusive distributor of the Fortuny fabrics and dresses in the United States.

After his death, she curated her husband's art collection, donating works to several museums and compiling the inventory of the contents of their residence.

Henriette Fortuny wearing Fortuny garments, including the pleated Delphos gown she designed. Portrait by Mariano Fortuny (1935), Musée Fortuny, Venice.