Amid our Vienna sojourn a few months ago, Kiki and I saw all manner of kitschy Mozart and Freud and Klimt socks for sale — and at the Leopold Museum Kiki splurged on a pair of socks depicting Egon Schiele’s 1910 “Self-Portrait with Striped Shirt.”
I have a weakness for these socks myself. While visiting the Art Institute of Chicago last year, Kiki got me a pair of socks depicting Georges Seurat’s 1884 painting “A Sunday on La Grande Jatte”, and they are a weirdly resonant token of our afternoon at the museum (which doubled as a pilgrimage of sorts, since I recalled the appearance of Seurat’s painting in Ferris Bueller’s Day Off, one of my favorite teen movies from back in the day).
I explored the idiosyncrasies (and psychology) of souvenirs at length in my 2018 book the same name, yet it’s fun to note these new souvenir trends amid my ongoing journeys.
Note: “Dispatches” are short vignettes, profiles, and mini-essays written and posted from the road, often in tandem with my Instagram account. I don’t host a “comments” section, but I’m happy to hear your thoughts via my Contact page.