The constancy of change

The only constant we can count on is change. Some changes are so slow as to be imperceptible, others make themselves known all at once. Yet one thing for sure is that everything is in a constant state of evolution. Waters rise and recede, foundations shift, the light is obscured and revealed as clouds roll in and eventually lift. In Venice, the season of acqua alta begins, an amplification of our daily dialogue with the sea. Senses heightened, our antennae tune to the tides, a reminder that to live here is to live in rhythm with nature’s uncertainty.

Perhaps in reaction to our will being bent to forces greater than our own, we pretend for a moment that time can be tamed and adjust our clocks, as if turning the hands of a watch could delay the sun’s descent. But the universe pays no mind to our schedules; nature keeps her own time.

The month of October comes particularly alive with transformation. The air grows more crisp, trees trade their green for red and gold, and the light alters its character; more angled, it softens the edges of the day and becomes more intimate, as if drawing us closer in its glow. We savor the mild days and accept the harsher ones as part of the preparation for winter’s chill.

At Fortuny, we strive to move with these transitions rather than against them, to channel them into the quiet pursuit of beauty that defines our work. The shifting light on the lagoon, how color deepens in shadow, how it moves across water, cloth, and stone, becomes part of our reflection and our palette. In every rising tide we are reminded that constancy lives within change, and that the truest reflection of beauty is found not in resisting time, but in moving gracefully with it.