Sushila Pun

Before starting to design my collection, I interviewed British-Nepalese boys and men who were very eager to participate in my documentation and we shared conversations about living in the UK with dual identities. This documentation process included the initial stage of photographing their clothing, observing their behaviour and asking detailed questions about their lifestyle and their past memories of living in the UK, about any challenges or obstacles they faced. Their stories and answers seep into different chapters of my collection which is divided as follows: Borders, Arrival, Re-birth and Masked.

My collection became a process of storytelling and image making, that really instigated the design development of the garments. The combination of dual elements, double meanings and multiple signs and symbols grace my clothes that reflect the conflict of being a foreigner. I explore these ideas deeply through surfaces: such as by burning away parts of cotton to achieve a devore effect, and other handmade techniques like knitted checks, painted words, dyeing and embroidery. I mainly use western silhouettes in combination with cultural garments to mix clean-cut details with handmade rough finishes and show the contrast of both cultures.

My work is emotional, modern, traditional, eclectic, extensive, clean, unrefined and embodied in more than just one sense of the word. My collection questions, narrates and ignites memories, emotions, conflicted identities and shared cultural meanings.