Can you sum up the total of a man’s achievements on paper? Perhaps — if you sculpt it as the Countess Isabelle de Borchgrave has for Mariano Fortuny.

The Bellevue Arts Museum’s latest featured exhibit, “A World of Paper, A World of Fashion,” is the Belgian artist de Borchgrave’s reconstruction and tribute to the life’s work of Fortuny. Fortuny was an early 20th century Spanish-Italian renaissance man — he created textiles, clothing, costumes and theater sets during his lifetime — best known for his sensual, eclectic dress designs. He invented the finely pleated silk Delphos gown in 1907, basing it off the statue of the Charioteer of Delphi.

Fortuny made dresses of myriad cultural inspiration in a columnar shape that demanded a lack of undergarments — a design that was likely considered scandalous in his lifetime, according to exhibit curator Stefano Catalani.

The samples recreated by de Borchgrave consist of dresses and setpieces both two- and three-dimensional — all reimagined in paper.

“Everything you see in this room is made of paper,” said Catalani, who is the BAM’s director of art, craft and design. He went on to describe the artist’s process of painstakingly folding and hand painting her materials to resemble the original fabrics.

Catalani said he was proud to bring an artist of de Borchgrave’s reputation to a venue the size of the BAM.

“Two years ago, I visited the (Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco), where they featured a complete exhibit of four works from Isabelle de Borchgrave,” he said, referring to the 2011 Pulp Fashion exhibit. “I fell in love with her art.”

The countess — born in 1946, three years before Fortuny’s death — was trained as a painter and had worked in advertising, fashion, textile creation and interior design over the course of a career that resembled Fortuny’s, Catalani noted. A trip to the New York Metropolitan Museum of Art in the early 1990s gave her the idea to begin sculpting costumes in paper. She created four major collections representing the fashions of different eras, including “Ballets Russes,” “I Medici,” “Papiers à la Mode” — created in conjunction with costumer Rita Brown — and “Mariano Fortuny,” an exhibit of Italian Renaissance fashion unrelated to the designer of the same name.

“She realized this was her calling,” Catalani said. “She wanted to (pay tribute to) fashion history by recreating those fashions in paper.”

It was a 2007 invitation from Venetian museum Museo Fortuny that led de Borchgrave to create the exhibit of the late designer’s work. The museum provided her access to fabric samples and an extensive photo collection in order to complete her project.

The craftsmanship of the installation truly must be seen to be appreciated — most of the dresses on exhibit only become apparent as works of paper on close examination. One favorite item of note is the countess’s recreation of a costume Fortuny designed for Orson Welles’ 1952 production of “Othello.” Another is the exhibit’s final room, featuring a paper reconstruction of the artist’s own studio and working process.

“A World of Paper, A World of Fashion” held its gala opening Friday, Nov. 22. It will remain on display at the BAM through Feb. 16.