This short film was a quiet precursor to Rituals of Returning, made with a small group of close friends in late 2024. It began as an informal experiment—an intuitive attempt to explore the emotional and relational weight of clothing, memory, and exchange. In it, my friends dress and undress in garments I had previously made for them, alongside hand-me-downs passed between us over time. These clothes carry shared histories: of gifting, of growing, of holding one another through different seasons of life.

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Though modest in scale, the film became a meaningful foundation for what would later grow into my thesis. It revealed how even the simplest acts of dress can become gestures of intimacy, recognition, and care. Through conversations sparked during this process, I began to understand that adornment as a tool of reclamation extended far beyond clothing. Hairstyles and tattoos emerged as equally powerful acts of self-definition—ways of reclaiming the body through permanent or flexible marks of autonomy. This project helped shape the broader scope of my thesis by revealing the many forms that adornment can take, and the many ways it can bring us back to ourselves.