While working in sales at a fast fashion clothing company, I became disillusioned by the many levels of exploitation within the clothing business. The system is set up to churn out products at an unsustainable rate, which are often made by exploited workers in dismal working conditions. In an effort to subvert the practices of my boss, and to create a secret line of connection to the end consumer, I created QR code stickers which I snuck onto the garment labels of the dresses, which, if scanned by the customer's smart phone, would take them to a website with instructions on how to cleanse the garment of negative psychic energy. Hundreds of these dresses were shipped to big box clothing stores in states across the US. Because fast fashion is ephemeral, the website no longer exists, but you can see it in its original form below.
RITUAL FOR PSYCHIC PROTECTION OF MASS PRODUCED GARMENT
Your garment has been handled by dozens of different people, as it made its way from a raw material, to a dress, to a product for mass consumption that you purchased in a store. In order to cleanse it of the many energetic traces that it's accumulated on the way to becoming your own, you can perform a simple ritual for its purification. Once it's been cleansed, the garment will take on your energy as you wear it over time. In this way it will become not just another disposable dress, but a powerful container for your essence, and also a form of protection against any unwanted negative energies.
INSTRUCTIONS:
1. Remove the QR code sticker attached to the care label that directed you to this website. Then remove all hang tags and all other labels from the garment. This is the first step to energetically clearing the traces of its production.
2. Wash the garment by hand with warm water and a natural soap.
3. Once it's dry, lay it out a white cloth, sheet, or white fabric of any kind in a sunny spot. If it's possible to do this outdoors, then do so, but indoors is fine too. Leave the garment to soak in the sunlight for up to an hour.
4. Light a bundle of sage and smudge* it over the dress. Light the dried sage, making sure to hold it over some type of heat-resistant surface to catch the ash (a soap dish or abalone shell works well). Once it's lit, wave the smoking bundle over the garment without touching it, allowing the smoke to envelop the garment completely.
5. If you are inclined to do so, say some type of blessing aloud or mentally. Ask that any stagnant energies be released from the garment, and for it to be infused with positive energy and light.
*Smudging is the practice of burning of dried aromatic plants as a blessing and to clear unwanted energies. It represents the transformation of matter (plant) into spirit (smoke). In addition to sage, one could use dried cedar, pine, yerba santa, or lavender.
