Marginalia and Library

Marginalia and Library are the two welts of Seamiotics, every seam means something. Every design comes in one or the other, and neither is standard.

• Marginalia: fine white lace with white embroidered detailing, inspired by the margins of beautifully printed books: not literal writing, but the texture of notes and illumination.
• Library: a perfectly tailored plain welt, minimal, architectural and beautifully finished.

The welt sets how much there is to read. She decides whether it is read. Marginalia says more than Library when it is read, but that is a fact about the welt, not a forecast about the woman. A richly detailed welt can stay her own knowledge all day; a plain one can be shown on purpose. "Library is not a promise of discretion." A woman who wants to be read without being decorated has chosen well.

Both welts cost the same. A house that charged extra for Marginalia would have made the welts hierarchical at the till, whatever its prose said, "and is selling a woman her own secret."

Both are built to take a suspender clip without laddering, at a point she can find by touch, and Marginalia's lace is never where the clip bites.

Behind the scenes

The welts are described in the Seamiotics Bible, version 1.4.