Everyday divine: Fashion, ritual and identity transformation

Abstract

As the world experiences the end of the COVID-19 pandemic lockdown era, I have been conducting a project that investigates the function and meaning of the creative making process. Using the steps to making as the research focus, I ask: why does designing and crafting feel and function like a change-making ritual, more than a routine? What evidence of the metamorphic energy of making lies within each finished creation? Through a review of other scholars’ work, from fields including ritual study, psychology, art and pedagogy, I began to understand the process of creation, and how it can promote positive transformation. Most important of all is the transformation of materials, ideas and inspiration into millinery. To begin, I found that the art of creative research propels the maker into a liminal stew of ideas and actions, where only the forces for and against the act of making are evident. The choices of materials and applications gather increasingly on the studio table, and the question of the meaning behind the process grows curiously deeper…