setting fire to your wedding dress and other tips

Setting fire to your wedding dress and other musings…

In 2018, midway through a divorce and just beginning to teach on Adornment. On a balmy summer's eve, I stood at the foot of a small fire pit I'd bought to toast marshmallows with my kids. I revelled as the flames licked and roared through my delicate silk wedding dress. I let out a heavy sigh, as I felt a huge shift of expansion happen in real-time.

I've played that moment back many times because it was so significant in my identity shift. Cleansing away what was no longer mine and stepping into a new sphere of consciousness. A new chapter.

I recall the feelings of fury, rage, illusion and love being purified. This unbridled celebration of the new, hope on the other side catapulted through me.

My creative Muse stepped forward.

For so long, I lived, unable to put one foot towards my soulful and artistic impulses.

Years of hiding and upholding masks destabilised me from being seen and recognised for my gifts. I opted for destruction over creativity, not being true to the woman I was dressing each day.

Women are still fighting their own body image and battling old identities that are entangled within the clothes in their wardrobes. Muses were once enslaved to the gaze; they were there to be viewed but not empowered in their own right. The energy of the liberated woman and creative Muse is necessary in these times.

To adorn oneself is to return to a higher sense of self-expression, to be visible beyond the fear of the toxic gaze.