The Wearing Process as a Rite of Passage

Abstract

This article explores some value-adding changes involved in the wearing down and wearing out of garments from a psycho-anthropological viewpoint. The material changes in a garment’s fabric transform a mass-produced commodity into a personalized item. This process is akin to the self-transformation taking place in rites of passage, where the transition is highlighted by scarification of the surface, that is, a mass produced garment equating a personalized one. Like a rite of passage, the wearing process that eventually causes garments to become worn down and/or worn out makes an individual socially presentable through simultaneous destruction and creation in a liminal space. The wearing experience’s transitional state is equated to the skin in a rite of passage. Thus, a garment is changeable, transient, responsive, and socially becoming, due to the material characteristics of the fabric’s flexibility and absorbency, which make it an extension of the wearer’s body.

Keywords:

• rites of passage
• scarification
• wearing process
• worn down
• worn out

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Hye Eun Kim

Hye Eun Kim took her MA at London College of Fashion and PhD at the Royal College of Art in the UK. She is a designer, researcher, and visiting professor in the beauty design management department at Woosong University in Korea. Her work has been exhibited internationally including in China, France, Italy, Korea, and the UK. Her main interest is fabric and its changes through garment making and wearing in material culture from an anthropological viewpoint. She published several articles in international and Korean journals relating to these issues. [email protected]