Handwork and Handicrafts - Waldorf Research Institute

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In Torquay he discussed the matter as follows:
Here we are trying to make the children into practical workers. When you
come to the Waldorf school, you will see that the children can do very nice
bookbinding, and make all kinds of boxes, and so forth; you will see how
they are trained to do really artistic needlework. And the girls’ needlework
lessons are not given in such a way that you can see anything resembling
the so-called clothes that women wear nowadays, in which no distinction is
made between what is worn up here, what is worn round the waist, and what
belongs round the hem. No attempt is made to ensure that what is worn
around the neck shall have the character of something worn around the neck
(Plate 9, fig. 16). (This is drawn only schematically.) No one is concerned to
make what is worn round the waist show by its design that there is something
above it and something below. 4
Nor should one overlook the fact that the belt has to be closed. The forms to the left and right
of the place where it is fastened should likewise be metamorphosed in accordance with the
latter—if possible in symmetry with it.
Steiner also spoke of the metamorphoses relating to the dark and light coloring of the
single parts of a whole garment. He said: “[T]he garment should be lighter towards the top
and darker towards the bottom. Here it should relate to the earth, and be made heavy and
dark in contrast to the upper realms of air and light.” 5 On another occasion he said that it is
beneficial to keep a garment symmetrical to the central vertical line at the front. 6
Taking these indications from Steiner as a whole, one could perhaps say that
“metamorphosis is required in the vertical direction from the top downwards, while
symmetry is a principle relating more to the central line at the front of the garment,” though
this should of course not be taken in any dogmatic way. If one compares, for example, the
two figures Sophia and Estella in The Portal of Initiation by Steiner, one will see how their
costumes are made to correspond to their soul-spiritual natures. But both garments—
Sophia’s peach-blossom stole, which becomes darker towards the bottom, and Estella’s smart,
asymmetrical dress of a lighter green—express a truth.
The Modeling of Hats
Steiner also made observations from time to time regarding the shape and decoration
of hats, and we should like, as far as memory allows, to reproduce some of them here. It was
in the years before World War I (from 1909–1912) that the Mystery Dramas were being
performed in Munich. Not only was the scenery designed under his direction, but he also
gave indications, down to particular details of form and color, for the garments and headgear
of each individual character in his plays. He is even said to have given practical assistance
when something was going wrong in the making of them.
But in quite other connections too, remarks were made by him at that time regarding
women’s hats in general. He said that a hat should sit firmly on the head as though held by