Clothing gives external shape to our identities and the way we feel in our bodies, and poetry does the same for our thoughts and emotions. They’re both a kind of lived metaphor. In this introduction, I bring the two together with "Your One Good Dress," a poem by Brenda Shaughnessy.

My guest is Rachel Lopez-Cerrato, a fashion and costume designer raised in Honey Brook, Pennsylvania and Guanajuato, Mexico. She comes from a lineage of grandmothers who were garment and textile factory workers, designers, and seamstresses, and that lineage deeply informs her work. Rachel believes in the magic of clothing and often designs garments she’s seen in dreams. We talked about all of that and also about the transformative nature of motherhood, as we’re both the parents of young kids. 

Rachel's ancestral skills practice was inspired by Spirit Weavers Gathering.
She loves the publication Life As Ceremony.
Her sweatsuit and jumpsuit are from Virgo.
Learn more about Rachel and see her work at cerratoci.com and @cerratoci.

You can follow me on Instagram @littleritualstarot and on twitter @tobeyward. The intro and outro music is Song of Sweetness by Potential Gospel. The podcast art is by Juliann Gates. This episode was mastered by Matt Fox. If you liked what you heard today, please leave a review.