Throughout my final major project I have been investigating whether garment design can aid someone who over ritualises their daily life to an uncomfortable extent. I have been looking at different ways of regulating chaos through exploring personal and impersonal rituals and the coping mechanisms that exist alongside them. I am a person who has obsessive compulsive tendencies, I use rituals day to day to bring myself relief from anxieties. Using textiles has been an eye opening way to explore this subject. The concept behind a weave has been especially influential – each line, thread, piece of fabric, relies on the next line to keep its form/structured pattern. I find that this is mirrored in my life and the life of those around me who suffer with anxiety and OCD. For example; when rituals in our daily routine are disrupted it is often unbearable/difficult to go through with the rest of the day in a calming way. Through garment design I have shown how having control over even the smallest of details can create a distraction and therefore bring relief to the wearer.
