Buy The Book

One of the oldest pastimes for young women is stitching. In colonial days girls were taught to perfect their needlepoint by completing samplers displaying practical sayings. Over centuries the craft became popular with grannies the world over.

One Christmas I got a bee in my bonnet to make hand stitched stockings for my family. This does not say much for my middle school social life, but had I been born back in the 1700s you can bet I would have been married off by the time I was thirteen thanks to my ambitious needlepoint skills.


While the hobby may have stuck around through changing times, unfortunately the patterns have not evolved as drastically. Unless there is a baby on the way or you are in need of a floral pillow, you are not going to find much in the way of variety. After the "Great Stocking Project of '99" I abandoned the activity and moved on to chicer pursuits. However, a few weeks ago I was thrilled to run across a new handbag line of intricately stitched clutches based on classic book covers by Olympia Le-Tan. She scoured dozens of vintage book stores before finally settling on a smattering of influential reads such as Moby Dick, The Heart is a Lonely Hunter, and The Catcher in the Rye. Each clutch is lined with Liberty-print fabric also used in Le-Tan's shoe line at Colette.

Photo via purple DIARY

After an intimate debut on the eve of Paris Fashion Week, the designer continued her party at an exclusive night club with Lady Gaga and Adrian Grenier. Now who says stitching can't be stylish?!

xx,CC