“Is there a dress code for Ways With Words?” I am often asked both by people who come to work for us and those who are attending the festival.
“Yes there is”, I reply firmly. “It’s a festival so you must dress festively.”
This often sends people into a tizz. It worries them more than if I said they had to wear a smart suit but there is a sub-text here. “Dress festively”, is a short hand for saying, “I want you and everyone who comes to Ways With Words to enjoy themselves. Life at a festival is special; it’s not a run-of-the-mill, ordinary time. It’s like a party, only better. Putting on festive clothes creates a party mood. Your clothes say, ‘this is a different sort of day’.”
But telling people to dress festively is also saying that Ways With Words enjoys diversity. Everyone’s interpretation of festive dress will be different. (Comme la Soupe, as I wrote last time.) No uniform here, though I have seen rather a lot of linen suits on men at the festival. I generally hate uniforms, for many reasons, but one is that they deny people the chance to be creative in daily life. Getting dressed each day is like doing a picture or a sculpture. Some days not many people will be attending the gallery of your life so the art of your clothes may not be appreciated. But a festival is different. It’s like being in Tate Modern, so any clothes-creativity will be appreciated by huge crowds. No wonder people look worried when I tell them to dress festively. Really I am saying, “Create a work of art; lots of people will come to see it.”
I love putting on the morning work of art but I have never deconstructed the philosophical, psychological and social aspect of our clothes too closely . But John Harvey has in his book, called simply CLOTHES. He says of party clothes (those I call festive clothes):
“Our worries are pushed off with our workaday clothes …… Clothes ..intensify the mood of the moment…. party clothes can be freedom, expectation in the in the shape of loose unbuttoned sleeves, exhilaration in the lift of chiffon panels....”
So get out your chiffon. Unbutton your sleeves, your mind, yourselves: Ways With Words is starting this Friday and, odd as it may sound with a festival to run, I have spent the weekend ironing.
Come in your finery to hear John Harvey speak on Clothes at Ways With Words festival of words and ideas at Dartington Hall, Devon on Tuesday 15 July at 3.30pm, chaired by Kay Dunbar - of course.
This event is part of a day called THE ART OF LIVING and has talks on Deception, Wellbeing, Illness and Hunger as well. All fascinating topics and worthy of a Blog.
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