Esme Socks

One dragonfly holds still. Two more got away.

The jewelled one

One sock carries the whole insect, made like something lifted out of a jewellery case. Four filigree wings, gold at the edge and flooded turquoise within. Two amber cabochons where the eyes belong. A body of gold segments with a turquoise stone seated in each one. It sits on a medallion that turns outward in rings of dots and dashes and little teardrop petals, cream and blue-green, while a thread of gold beads drops straight through the arrangement, top to bottom.

The two that got away

Its partner keeps only the outlines. Two dragonflies drawn in gold, their wings washed pale green, cross the leg at different heights. Grass bends over beneath them on tall stems — leaf tips dipped turquoise, narrow buds standing upright, gold dots suspended in the air about them. The stems are still leaning where something passed.

The green underneath both of them

Behind both of them the emerald carries a mandala of its own, worked in gold hairline and a green half a step darker — petalled rings, circles of dots, teal teardrops — wrapping the whole leg. The dragonflies you see immediately. The rest you go on finding for weeks.

Three plain things

• Toe black, heel black — the artwork gets the whole leg and the two ends keep out of its way
• The print does not stop below the cuff — no plain band waits up there, so the design still shows when you are sitting with your feet up
• One women's size — a single size on the menu, which leaves you exactly one thing to decide

Nothing here can sell out, because nothing here exists until you ask for it. Your pair gets printed once the order lands — slower than pulling something off a shelf, and the reason this design is still here to choose.