seasons of the witch - lughnasadh

With Lughnasadh, I have reached the end of my ongoing witch series - I have come full circle, as the 1st of August marks the fourth big pagan holiday. Next up is Samhain in three months, and I already covered that last year. It was exciting to have a long-term project again, nothing too fast-paced, something that I could do on the side, but that still required focus. A project that challenged me, but was not overwhelming, with clear, but not impossible deadlines. But before I recap the whole project, let’s take a closer look at this last part of it:
Lughnasadh is a fire festival and marks the beginning of the harvest season. It is not quite a harvest festival (that would be Mabon at the autumn equinox); Instead, it marks the beginning of abundance - but also of work, of gathering and collecting and storing for winter. Now is the time to reap what you sowed, and to conserve the firey summer energy for the colder days which lay ahead. It feels more serious than Beltane: Autumn is already approaching, now we have to be focused and mindful, to use the time to its best potential.

My approach to this last piece of the project was a little different than the times before: Now I had something to look back on, to see what I had already done in the past and which new ideas I could introduce. I wanted something more serious than for Beltane, something less youthful than for Imbolc and something less archetypical than for Samhain.
I craved something a bit more layered and varied, both figuratively and literally. I decided to be bolder with my colour choices and to push the pattern mixing to more of an extreme.

Colour-wise, my starting point was the fabric of the stays. I got it in the year prior at one of my favourite deadstock fabric shops, for free - it was just a scrap, but I knew right away that I wanted to turn it into a pair of stays eventually. With its bunnies and pheasants and berries, it turned out to be the perfect fabric for a harvest-themed look. It is pretty colourful and can go in a lot of different directions, but I decided to really push the purples and reds this time, by adding the bright red binding and combining the stays with the plum-coloured trousers. The whole ensemble falls somewhere in between bright summer colours and more muted autumnal shades, which reflect the mood of this time of the year perfectly: It is a bit bittersweet, with summer coming to an end and the days getting shorter. At the same time, we welcome the abundance of autumn and celebrate the richness of the harvest.

I wanted to try something different than the expected stays+dress/skirt combination, so I settled for trousers. To balance the tightness of the bodice, I made them wide-legged and added a front slit into each leg, to allow for even more movement. I saw this wrap-style on a pair of vintage trousers from my mother and knew immediately that this was the perfect detail. I just love how it looks in a striped fabric - the changing directions add more visual interest and give the whole piece a nice flow. They are very dramatic and odly minimal at the same time, probably more so in a less patterend fabric. I can definitely see them being made up in a more flowy fabric as well, for a softer look.

The shirt is made after a centuries-old pattern - just a couple of rectangles, gathered and stitched at the right places, with an underarm gusset to allow for more movement. I like how it’s a kind of androgynous shape with a rather cutesy print: There is something rugged about it, it is very “piratey”, which is always a good sign. It is made from a very fine and sheer cotton, which I bought in London a couple of years ago. Coincidentally, I already wanted to make a witchy ensemble back then, but never came around to cutting into the fabric.

So, this is it! The end of a year-long project, that started a lot longer than just 12 months ago. I have had witches on my mind ever since I heard the first stories about them as a child: How I imagined them changed and evolved over time, and even now, I do not have a clear image. Sometimes I see them as strong, almost cruel women, then as nurturing and healing caregivers. They are both free-spirited and bound to earth, alone and connected. These images are shaped by stories and folklore, but also by society, pop culture and current events. There is never just The One Witch - Witches come in all different kinds of forms and shapes and are seemingly everywhere. Or is it just because I am looking for them?
With these 4 incarnations, I tried to shed some light on my own, personal image of a witch and all the things this word encompasses for me. I feel like I only scratched the surface and there is just so much more to investigate and discover. But for now, it is a good time to stop and pause for a while. I am sure I will revisit this idea in the future, but probably in a different format. While there are other things to explore in the meantime, the witches will always follow close behind - or even lead the way.

It is always bittersweet to end projects and this one is no different. But all things must come to an end, and the autumn ahead will be a very busy one…

all images © Lukas Jahn
location: Schreckberg, Stein an der Donau
jewelry: Makaro, We Are Flowergirls, handcarved antler pendant
boots: Chloé

At the moment, I am already working on something very exciting and big, which will be revealed in a couple of months - and I am also already brainstorming some ideas for a new series, similar to this one. If you want to stay up to date with everything I have going on in the meantime, the best place to go to is my Instagram account.