Daily Personal Rituals: Dressing

For our upcoming show, Leap Year, we asked everyone to create work about 'breaking the rules'. With this in mind,  I’m working on an installation piece. In my practice as a product designer, I design for others or in collaboration. It’s rare that I get to design something for myself or where I’m the focus. I also studied performing arts before becoming a designer and I’m always trying to find ways to blend the two together. If I could break the rules for one day, I would focus on work centered around the self. I believe it’s important to explore the self in relation to the bigger picture. In my work, I’m drawn to rituals, heirlooms, the private vs. the public, and I believe that objects not only tell a story but also have an emotional life.

For my Leap Year installation, the object is my clothes and the subject is myself. Everyday I get dressed and everyday it’s a long process of me trying on many outfits before I finally get the right look. Some days a certain outfit feels like me and other days the same outfit feels like someone else. What’s the rationale behind this? Is it all about the persona I feel like projecting that day? Can people tell the persona I’m projecting based on what I’m wearing, or do I look the same no matter what I wear? While a video of myself wearing different outfits is running, people will have a chance to dress a paper-doll version of me and create their persona of me. This is the first piece of a series I’m working on where I explore my daily personal rituals and the personas that I project into the world.

-Ange-line

Image: Ange-line Tetrault