Building Family Through Clothing
Around a year ago, I wrote a paper for one of my master's courses about queer relationships in Witch Hat Atelier and how clothing is used to show familial ties. And since I am obsessed with this topic (because Witch Hat Atelier is just that good with all its little details) and the anime is now being released, I thought that I might share some of my thoughts on this. I will try to break down my main points from the paper in what is hopefully a comprehensive manner.
So first of all, the hats in the manga are used to show the identity of a witch, it basically works like an ID, but also showcases the connections between different witches. One example is that every single student's hat looks similar or the same as their master's. We can see that with Beldaruit, Qifrey, and Coco (Qifrey's hat as a student is basically a mix between both Coco and Beldaruit). And with this in mind, we can take a look at the queer coding of Qifrey and Olriggio, and the discussions on families of choice and predominantly queerplatonic relationships. Sometime during their time as students, they exchanged their hat ornaments. Mind you, the ornament is a part of their identity as is recognizable to other witches, the same way that they are able to identify who was trained by whom. Wearing a part of the others' identity aligns them with each other in a way that extends to their general character design. They fully complement the other in colour and style. Where Olruggio wears black, Qifrey wears white, and vice versa. The queercoding also extends beyond clothing with typical themes of queer characters in literature like moving to the countryside/leaving home and being the other. Qifrey is quite literally always the stranger in witch society the same as almost everyone in his altelier is an outsider in their own community. It literally says at some point that most of his students "ran away to master Qifrey's atelier" (Shirahama, Witch Hat Atelier 5: Ch. 25), leaving behind abuse, expectations that are too high, and punishment by the law. His atelier is the home, the sanctuary for the alienated (there is so much to say about queer theory here and the queering of space), which is again relevant in regard to their hats. They form a cohesive group that includes not only Qifrey and his students but also Olruggio. The tassel that Olruggio now wears matches with that of the students and signifies his parental role beyond that of a watchful eye. There is also a lot to be said about colours, but that is too extensive to put here, but also note that Olruggio's ribbon is included in the design of the student uniforms. Plus, they all got matching rings later on that help you find your loved one (I'm not crying, you are).
But you know what makes all of this even better? Right! It extends beyond the main cast. Atwort and Galga as the only official gay couple, are an excellent example for how clothes are used to express queer relationships. They are hit with full on systematic homophobia when Atwort is not allowed to assume custody of Galga, aka. is not allowed to help in a medical emergency. The reason is that he would have to be either a family member or a master/student of Galga to do so. There is a whole issue about the role that master-student relationships play in witch society, but let's just say that it is considered a) temporary and b) equal to family. We also don't know jack shit about queer couples and marriage practices so I am not sure what the general consensus on queer people is (would they even be allowed to be married?). So what Atwort does in the end is side-stepping the system with a move that we would call same sex adult adoption. If you have not heard of this (as I hadn't before my research), it is the practice of adopting your partner in order to gain the same benefits that hetero couples/ family structures possess. It is really fascinating, but also quite tragic if you ask me. Atwort takes Galga on as a student in a scene reminiscent of a marriage proposal. The marriage proposal depicted is one that was not - as they were not married - and potentially could not - as laws might prohibit it - and that now cannot be - considering Galga lost his memories. The result is that Atwort reconstructs the script surrounding the witch hat (something that subdues witches by revealing their identity and making them a solely public figure) to one that benefits his narrative. The only people with the same hats are masters and their students but also characters in romantic relationships that might be the witch equivalent of married (as seen with Riche's parents). This adoption, if you wanna call it that, is a solution, if not ideal. It is temorary till graduation or till you switch to another master, but there is a huge power imbalance. Not only is Glaga now considered just a student, but with his loss of identity he is essentially overwritten by Atwort (which also is shown with the clothing as well as his new hair style)
Shirahama Kamome. Witch Hat Atelier. 2019- . 13 vols. Kodansha Comics, Witch Hat Atelier, Volume 1.