Fortuny Christmas Stockings from Bremermann Designs

When I discovered these gorgeous Christmas stockings from Bremerman designs I. WANTED. THEM. You see, they are made from fabric designed by Mariano Fortuny, a Venetian fashion and textile designer who worked from the turn of the century until the 1930s. I cannot believe they are only $45.

Not only are these stockings gorgeous and affordable, but they remind me of one of the main characters in my very favorite novel, In Search of Lost Time by Marcel Proust. Odette de Crécy, a beguiling courtesan who is also referred to as the lady in pink, was one of the most fashionable women in Paris and always wore gowns by Fortuny.

Fortuny Gown from VintageTextiles.com

I have been obsessed with Proust ever since I was assigned to read In Search of Lost Time during my first year of college. Sounds pretentious to admit to being a Proust fanatic, but there it is. Since college, I have read the circa 1920 Scott-Moncrieff  translation twice more, and all of the volumes in Enright’s 1992 translation that are currently available in the US. I’m trying to find an appropriate passage to use as a reading for the wedding.

Proust’s treatment of memory, space, time and desire is absolutely brilliant. He captures petty social interactions like no author I’ve ever read. I once heard an interview with director Charlie Kaufman on the NPR program Fresh Air with Terry Gross. In the interview he describes a great artist as someone who is able to rearrange the furniture in your head so that you are different from having experienced his or her work. It is exactly so with Proust and me.

Incidentally, when I visited the Frick Collection in New York I was thrilled to get a chance to see Whistler’s Harmony in Pink and Grey: Portrait of Lady Meux. Proust references the painting when he mentions “this harmony in pink and grey”; I can’t help but imagine that Odette looked something like this:

James McNeill Whistler, "Harmony in Pink and Grey: Portrait of Lady Meux" (1881) Frick Collection, New York