Fortuny - this word sounds like a promise.

The surname, which comes from Catalan, evokes luck and skill, just fortune.

If you board the vaporetto at Venice train station and drive through the Canale della Giudecca in the direction of St. Mark's Basin, after a few minutes you will see the large inscription on the starboard side of the entrance building of a historic textile factory on the island of Giudecca.

Even as a six-year-old, Alberto Torsello wondered what could be hidden behind the walls with this name.

At that time, the native Venetian lived opposite with his mother and looked at the lettering every day.

Half a century later he has set out to give Fortuny a new shine.

Mariano Fortuny y Madrazo (1871 to 1949) was considered the "Magician of Venice" during his lifetime.

Born in Spain, scion of a family of artists, he was a universal genius and achieved world fame with his fabrics, his light installations and his pleated dresses, which were admired by Marcel Proust.

With his textile factory, which is still producing today, he left a unique legacy, not only to the Venetians.

The factory is owned by American brothers Mickey and Maury Riyadh.

A few months ago they appointed Torsello as the new artistic director of the house.

The Italian is a well-known architect specializing in the preservation and renewal of the city's historical heritage.

He restored the Scuola Grande della Misericordia and the facade of the Doge's Palace and was awarded the Compasso d'Oro for his sensitive design.

As a first test of his skills for Fortuny, he redesigned the factory showroom.

manufacturing?

Secret!

The project that was actually conceived for the Homo Faber arts and crafts show in Venice became an overall task.

And so Torsello is now standing on the factory premises next to the former Molino Stucky grain mill and sees himself as the new conductor of an orchestra.

"It was like diving into the depths of the sea to understand the meaning of Fortuny," he says.

“I spoke to the workers and employees, to the head of production and to the administrative management.

There has to be a team spirit again.” The factory has also existed for so long because there has always been a sense of belonging.

Silence reigns in this part of the Giudecca.

Here Fortuny, his wife Henriette and later their successor, Elsie McNeill, realized their ideas of material noblesse.

35 people work on the production and sale of interior fabrics, cushions, umbrellas or textile book covers - fine niche products, the manufacture of which has always been kept secret.

No external person has access to the rooms.

That was already the case in Fortuny's time.

Even McNeill's Venetian husband, the Conte Gozzi, was not allowed to enter the rooms.