Material in its fashion: Proust's Fortunys and the pleats of time.

This article examines Proust's fascination with the dress as a site of transmaterial and transhistorical transformation. Descriptions of the Fortuny gown evoke its ability to conjure the visual and tactile qualities of ancient sculpture, architecture, and textile arts. The pleats and folds of the Fortuny become a medium through which the novel explores the dialectic between liquid and frozen temporalities, as well as the interplay between gender, materiality, and the aesthetics of the classical. Drawing on Ruskin, Stokes, Deleuze and others, the essay traces how the Fortuny functions as a complex creative material that transmutes evanescent life into lasting aesthetic impression. It also considers how the dress's enveloping folds allegorise dynamics of captation and fugitivity within Proust's narrative. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]