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Ceremonial Endeavour
This excerpt from a book that I adore speaks volumes about the ways that fashion and textiles were and can be (socially) sustainable.
There was a time when the making of cloth and clothing were personal endeavours, or regarded highly as cherished skills. This endeavour and understanding created a sense of spirit and status for the wearer [and the maker] while also acting as medicine for wellbeing; especially whilst engaging in the making process - this I believe, connects the fundamental purpose of clothing closer to the wearer.
The excerpt is taken from, Chapter 3 ~ Nosing out the Facts, Women who run with the Wolves, by Clarissa Pinkola Estes.
In archetypal symbolism, clothing represents persona, the first view the public gains of us. Persona is a kind of camouflage which let's others know only what we wish them to know about us, and nothing more. But there is an older meaning to persona, one found in all the MezoAmerican rites, one well known to cantadoras y cuentistas y curanderas, healers. The persona is not simply a mask to hide behind, but rather a presence which eclipses the mundane personality. In this sense, persona or mask is a signal of rank, virtue, character and authority. It is the outward significator, the outward display of mastery.
Notes on Chapter 3
Throughout Mezo-America, la mรกscara, the mask, connotes that a person has mastered union with spirit portrayed by both the mask and the spirit-clothing one wears. This identification with spirit through clothing and face adornment has almost faded away completely in Western culture. However, spinning of thread and weaving of cloth are ways to invite or be informed by spirit all in itself. There is evidence that the making of thread and cloth were once religious practices used to teach the cycles of life and death and beyond.
