BINDINGTHREADS
THREADS
BINDING

Shifting role of the designer from sole author to
Shifting role of the designer from sole author to
multi-story-enabler in fashion
multi-story-enabler in fashion

Elham Atighi Lorestani
Elham Atighi Lorestani | April 2022
Master of Design in Interaction Design | 2022
Supervisor: Hélène Day Fraser

BINDING THREADS
Shifting role of the designer from sole author to
multi-story-enabler in fashion
By

A CRITICAL AND PROCESS DOCUMENTATION
PAPER SUBMITTED IN PARTIAL FULFILLMENT OF THE
REQUIREMENTS FOR THE DEGREE OF MASTER OF
DESIGN

Elham Atighi Lorestani

EMILY CARR UNIVERSITY OF ART + DESIGN

Supervisor: Hélène Day Fraser

© Elham Atighi Lorestani, 2022

Fashion has always been about telling stories and yet
some stories are never told in the design process. All too
frequently they are also missing in the clothing we wear.
Hidden or neglected stories such as those connected to the
experiences of displacement are important. They have value
and are part of the identity construction for many people in
the 21st century. Whether it is through a lived experience
of moving or through the cultural convergence of mass
media, individuals around the world are affected by the
overwhelming pace of change in their surroundings and their
social contexts. So the concept of identity and the need for
a sense of self-expression are critical. The clothing we wear
is arguably one of the most effective means to convey our
personal identity and self-expression to/and with others.
This thesis describes a project that has drawn on the
potential of storytelling as a framework for the design
process as well as the means for connection and selfexpression. A platform has been envisaged and developed
that invites people to engage with fashion in a way that
enables a designer/researcher to consider, critique and
suggest an alternative way of looking at the fashion service
and design process that embraces multi-storytelling.
Initiated by my personal journey of moving to a new
country, early exploration in this practice-based research
began with self-cultural discovery and storytelling. This phase

Abstract

of work not only offered the initial context and medium for
future research but also provided me with an understanding
of the potential of visual and/or oral storytelling for healing,
expression and connection. The displacement expereince
was the starting point for storytelling as a discursive practice.
Following this phase, through a series of workshops with
peers, I explored clothing as a context for sharing stories
of moving, home and identity. The knowledge and insight
created through each study informed the development of
subsequent research activities. Drawing on collaborative
design, networking and heuristic inquiry, my approach has
led me to realise that clothing, beyond being tangible and
interactive, is highly evocative. All of this work has informed
the development of a digital platform prototype, which seeks
to invite people to share, read and wear personal moving
experiences with others, acting as both an initiator and holder
of stories, providing new ways for clothing to be accessed and
made.
Through my research, I have explored ways of designing
clothes that are collaborative and act to give people a genuine
way to express and share who they are. My work asserts
the importance of critically evaluating how we engage with
designing clothes. I have done so with the conviction that the
common role of the fashion designer as the sole originator
and storyteller is flawed, considering instead the role of the
designer/ the design process as a multi-stories enabler.
Keywords
Storytelling, Displacement, Co-creation, Home, Clothing, Designer/Clothing as multiple-story-enabler, Identity

Acknowledgment
To my husband, Mohammadhossein
This thesis wouldn’t have existed without your constant and
unconditional love and care. I am forever grateful for your
creativity, brightness and support throughout the entire
journey;

For your love and support in this path and for being part of
the photo shooting;
To my cohort and INDD students,
Thanks for all the countless conversations we had over tea
and the stories you shared;

To my supervisor, Hélène Day Fraser,
For your immense knowledge, continuous knowledge and
patient motivation the moments I doubted myself;

To Garnet Hertz,
For your words of encouragement and all the assistant with
photo shooting;

To my dear friend, Nikoo Farvardin,
For your generosity, creativity and support throughout the
process. And lastly thanks for being the beautiful face in front
of the camera;

To my internal reviewer, Manuhuia Barcham,
For the fresh perspectives and insightful comments;
To Jennifer Hiebert,

To Transitional group, Marcia, Megna and Yun,

For your patience in helping my ideas come true;

Thanks for all the love and care you have given me. Friendship
with you was the greatest achievement in my Master’s study.
I owe the greatest attitude to the stories you shared because
they were the beginning of many other stories;

To Emily Carr Community,

To my friend, Ghazal Jenab,

Specially Laura Kozak, Sophie Gaur, Bonne Zabolotney, Louise
St Pierre, Dimeji Onafuwa and Celeste Martin for being so
inspiring.

Fashion Design
Definition

Fashion is defined as an “assemblage of modifications of the body and/or supplements
to the body” (Eicher & Evenson, 2014), a definition that locates the actor/body and their
gender at the centre and includes issues such as materiality, aesthetics, techniques, taste, and
consumption. However, this is the definition that needs to be constantly challenged in changing
historical as well as spatial/sociocultural contexts (Gaugele & Titton, 2019). The way fashion
design shaped in my practice was way beyond this material-focused definition, it became a way
of expression, communication and collaboration. It is defined as a way of being together.

Table of
Content
1

Unexpected Responses

36

Stitching New Possibilities

2

Workshop Outcomes and Future Directions

38

Stories Too

3

The Baggage that Informs us

5

Storytelling Leading to Ideation

40

Present Threads

7

A Digital Platform

44

Single Narratives

8

Co-creation - Second Clothing and Storytelling Workshop

46

Displacement

9

Storyboard

48

Storytelling in Fashion

10

System Map

49

Connectiong Threads
Future Threads

13
17

Wireframes

50

Expanding on Technology

53

Threads to be Woven

59

Past Threads

My Story + Heuristic Inquiry
Many Stories + Narrative Inquiry

NewThreads

18
19

35

Digital Threads

Conclusion and Future Directions

References & Appendix

39

60

64

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01

Past Threads

1

Stitching New Possibilities
I have worked as a designer and fashion entrepreneur
for a decade. My passion for textiles and clothing comes from
my exposure to them since I was a child. For as long as I can
remember I was surrounded by people and stories connected
to textiles and tailoring. My mother does embroidery
and sewing and my grandparents’ families worked as
embroiderers and dressmakers. As I grew up there were
moments when I would be disconnected from cloth, but it
was never for long. I was always pulled back - to working with
cloth - as if I was part of its warps or wefts. Always part of my
identity, textiles are somehow just woven into my genes.
After pursuing and completing degrees in Mechanical
Engineering and during my Master of Industrial Design my
deep connection to textiles invariably drew me back in,
leading me to create a streetwear brand that celebrated
slow fashion in my home country, Iran. For seven years I
developed and sustained this company. Working within the
fashion industry context of Iran I became familiar with the
entire process: from designing the clothes; to make them; to
promoting them; and invariably to selling them too.
I began my Master’s studies in the midst of the COVID
19 Pandemic. While I was unable to travel to Canada to begin
my studies in person, I was still able to begin my studies and
connect with new peers and mentors online. This connection,

which was facilitated through digital technology, had its own
challenges and privileges. Initiating the program in our home
countries enabled my peers and I to really understand the
pluriversality of our cohort - we brought our very different
lenses, took on very different actions for our studio projects
and shared these with one another online. We not only
had a diverse range of design expertise but were also from
and located in very different lands. Enveloped by this new
experience I realized that the fashion design process too
might benefit from more than one perspective.
From the start, we were encouraged to bring our
personal context to our practice, acknowledging who and
where we are off. We quickly understood that our identity
and life experiences were a requirement to re-frame our
practice and relate to ourselves in a different way. As I write
this, I can’t help reflecting on my practice and the tactics
I have long taken as a designer. It is almost as though my
affinity for soft materials and textiles have been a means
for adapting and overcoming the many different emotional
challenges I have encountered in everyday life. Working with
cloth has been a way to reflect and follow the streams of my
thoughts through difficult and unpredictable times. As you
will see in the sections that follow, this natural affinity for
textiles - as a way of sorting through - has served me well as I
have progressed my way through my master’s studies.

Binding Threads

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3

Stories Too
I see traces of stories almost everywhere in my work. In
Spring 2021 - faced with grief in my own life having just lost
a family member - I used storytelling to reflect back on the
concept of death and life. I created a three-layered skirt that told
a very old Persian myth about Nowruz and the celebration of
the rebirth of nature. This work overlapped both the sorrow and
celebration of the moment I was experiencing.

(Nowruz)1. My act of making this skirt in response to a piece
of my own experience in life was a new starting point for my
creative practice. Creating this garment, I found a means
and a process to help me deal with my own grief. This act of
storytelling on clothing gave me the power to reflect on my
personal challenges and emotions and a way to consider new
possibilities within design. Nowruz means a new day.

The skirt I designed, and my mark-making on the cloth that
I used to make it, aligned perfectly with a cultural/religious belief
in my country of origin that rather than mourning death as an
end celebrates the cycles and connection of seasons, of being
- there is life after death. I called this piece I made “Rebirth”. A
nod to a specific story connected to the festival of Nowruz, my
skirt acted as a visual storybook. It communicates and provides
access to a 2430 BC myth about the celebration of spring
1

Fig 1. Rebirth - Telling Story of Nowruz on Clothing

This story tells how, Demuzi, the king of the gods of Sumer

married the beautiful goddess of fertility, Inanna. In mythology this sacred
marriage is used to describe creation. In the end Demuzi dies and Inanna
is left to mourn over his death. Ultimately, however, Demuzi is allowed to
return to heaven to be with Inanna for one half of the year. For Persians, the
story of his return marks the beginning of the new year and it is the symbol
of rebirth.

Binding Threads

Fig 2,3 & 4. Rebirth - Telling Story of Nowruz on Clothing with layers of fabric (from left to right)

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The Baggage that
Informs us
Let me place a picture frame right in front of you. You open
your eyes, peer through this frame and look. And there you see them
all - again - the luggage you have packed are staring back at you.
These bags - this luggage - are not closed. The stuff they hold - your
belongings - are refusing to be contained. Some of your suitcase
zippers are still open, your bags are bursting with all of your precious
things that resist being contained. They (the bags) sit like this waiting.
And while you (and they) wait for the travel visa to arrive, there are
times that you find yourself really missing wearing a specific piece
of clothing that you have packed. But you cannot/will not open your
blue luggage because you have weighed it all so many times. It is a
rule; it shouldn’t exceed 24 Kg. There is clothing, of course, that has
not made it into your bags. You have donated a lot of your things,
given them away to friends and family, and yet still you see a pile of
clothing stacked in the corner that needs to be left behind. Looking at
it, you feel pain in a part of your heart. Your brain tries to override this
emotion, to be logical/ rational. “You just have to bring the necessary
stuff,” you tell yourself.
Fig 5. photo of my luggage while moving to Canada

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The immigration challenges and experiences connected to facilitating and
preparing to move in the middle of my master’s studies were another focal points
that shaped my research. This expereince was the starting point for storytelling
as a discursive practice. Even though I tried to separate this from my studio
work - to ignore it - it persistently pushed back and found its way into my design
practice. At the end of my second semester, in Spring 2021, I decided to accept
this, acknowledging displacement as part of me, I began to actively reflect back
on it by inviting it into my practice and research.
My identity, my sense of self, is strongly connected with the displacement
experiences I have had. Displacement is not actually a new identity for me but
somehow a state of mind that I inherited from my ancestors. While I myself had
never before immigrated to another country I had moved frequently from one
city to another within Iran throughout my life. Immigration to a new country and
continent was of course a whole new experience for me but the virtual binding
to others and a new place through a project called “Transitional” made me less
lonely and helped me find support and means to feel connected. I will explain the
project in more detail further on.
Through Rebirth and other early work conducted while still in Iran (see
appendix), as well as my everyday life experiences there, I realized I was circling
around, three key elements in my practice:
•

Fashion and clothing as a medium of expression

•

Storytelling as the means to reflect a sort through difficult experiences

•

The experience moving as a scenario to drive new perspectives

Fig 6. three key elements in my practice

6

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7

02

Present Threads

Binding Threads

Single Narratives
From very early on in my work I sought to find an
effective way to critique and shed light on issues of singleglobal north centric -narratives - frequently used in fashion
design practice (Starck, 2020). Seeking an alternate way
of looking at the fashion service and design process that
is more inclusive, I turned to Storytelling as a key strategy.
Fashion is about telling stories. In the fashion design process,
the designer is conventionally the dominant and the single
storyteller. This role of sole, unidirectional storyteller often
draws the fashion designer to use and play with stereotypes.
The issue with stereotypes however is not that they are
untrue, but, rather, that they are incomplete. “They make ‘one
story’ become the only story” (Adichie as cited in Bertolotti
et al., 2016). “Many stories matter. Stories have been used
to dispossess and to malign, but stories can also be used to
empower and to humanize” (Adichie, 2009). The stories most
frequently associated with the commercialized and Western
fashion system only give certain people a voice, making some
communities visible while neglecting many others (Conscious
Life and Style, n.d.). I view this as a significant problem.

It is impossible to talk about a single story without
talking about power. Stories are defined by the principles
of nkali, an Igbo word meaning ‘to be greater than
another’. How they are told, who tells them, when they
are told, how many stories are told are really dependent
on power. Power is the ability not just to tell the story of
another person, but to make it the definitive story of that
person”.
- Adichie, 2009

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Displacement

Displacement is a part of the self-identity of many
people in the 21st century and impacts many people in
many ways (Massey, 2010). I am of the opinion that for
Fashion to contribute in more meaningful ways it needs to
acknowledge and focus on this. Designer Helen Storey’s
use of clothing to communicate the complex issues of mass
displacement of people is among a few fashion practices
that I have found that do this (Dress for our time, n.d.).
Focusing on the British context and in the light of the Brexit
vote, fashion academic, Flavia Loscialpo has analyzed the
condition of the immigrant within fashion as a way to see how
fashion can contribute to an understanding of immigration
as a constitutive aspect of contemporary society. Loscialpo
discusses different conceptualizations of the figure of
the immigrant and analyses how cultural identity is being
reframed in the rapidly changing trans-global landscape
(Lpscialpo, 2019). Similarly, the exhibition “Talking textile:
Cultural Threads “, which was held in the Textile Museum
in Tilburg, the Netherlands, in 2019used textile as a tool
for socio-political reflection (Edelkoort, 2019). The theme
of this exhibition in the Netherlands was inspired by the
book Cultural Thread – Transnational Textiles Today by
Jessica Hemmings which contemplates the idea of global
history along with the interweaving of identity and culture
(Hemmings, 2015). While the concept of fashion, immigration

9

and borders is investigated in these English and European
contexts (Loscialpo, 2019, Dress for our time, n.d), it does
not seem to have been extensively discussed in Canadian
transcultural society. There is a notable gap that is odd to
me considering what I know of the diversity of backgrounds
that contribute to Canadian culture. With this in mind, my
research over the past 18 months has tried to shift the focus
away from the designer as the narrator towards the people
who share experiences of immigration and displacement and
contribute (in a multitude of valuable ways) as storytellers
in their own right. My research sits in the triangulation of
storytelling, fashion and displacement. Self-inquiry and
material-based practice played a key role in this particular
project. In my work I have acted as both the researcher and
research participant, telling my own story as a newcomer to
an unfamiliar place through a generative making process that
expanded my research to include co-creative practices with
others. This process shifted my role from designer as a sole
storyteller to one as a multi-story enabler. It allowed for rich,
divergent stories to emerge and enter through dialogue and
discussion with others. I found myself thriving and deriving
great pleasure in this space.

Storytelling in Fashion

Binding Threads

10

Storytelling is integral to fashion. Explored in many ways and by a wide array of means
and mediums, it is applied to address many different contexts, values and aspirations:
upholding the current status quo by encouraging individuality and consumption (luxury, fast
fashion (Dimitriva, 2019); looking to the possibility of technology (e.g. Hussein Chalayan
collection (Pixels and Feathers, 2019)); concern for the environment (e.g. Tonle’s zero
waste maker-led community (Tonle, n.d.)); concern for perspectives outside of the Western,
modernist construct (e.g. Craft based and maker-centred Indian brand Pero (Pero, n.d.)).
Below I went through more details about how storytelling is been used in fashion by different
brands, fashion networks and entertainment indutries.

of its consumers. Social influencers and celebrities working with luxury brands feed into this
storytelling. Bryan Bubbly posted “Travelling light” on 6 March 2018, while surrounded by six
Louis Vuitton bags. A few days later, he posted a picture from Dubai where he is dressed in
Gucci from top to toe. Examples of the commodity that has colonized social life, this is what
the French philosopher Guy Debord (1994) referred to as “the world of the commodity”. Here,
in this social, economic context, the mediated world is populated by luxury fashion objects
and brands, and all the narratives essentially revolve around this material experience. The self
that is presented in digital storytelling relies merely on the multiplied luxury fashion object
(Debord, 1994 as cited in von Wachenfeldt, 2021).

Comodity and Defined Identity -Gucci

Action Attachments – Local Wisdom

Storytelling is paramount to luxury brands for which purchase behaviours are often
driven by emotional triggers. Storytelling is one of the key strategies in digital and mobile
marketing. In marketing strategies, convincing consumers to join the brand journey via the
storytelling principle is key, (Romo et al., 2017). Gucci has emerged as a traditional luxury
brand that has managed to transform its brand to engage with the new generations of affluent
consumers through the use of narrative on social media. Practically reinvented itself in the
last seven years, with its turn in vision, voice, and values – Gucci has applied storytelling
techniques that have permeated all aspects of its line from product development through
to its digital marketing strategies (Lunchmetrics Content Team, 2019). In this luxury-based
context, the focus of digital marketing is to make the brand an intimate part of the self-identity

As a point of contrast, and in the domain of change-making, storytelling has also been
used to expose the diverse relations people have with their clothing. Here it is a way to help
enable and encourage more sustainable fashion solutions. In research, a good example of this
is the international Local Wisdom Network led by Dr. Kate Fletcher. The network collected,
documented and categorized the many ways that people adjust and become attached to their
clothing over time. Through Local Wisdom ‘Craft of Use’ practices were identified. These
offered a new possible type of prosperity in Fashion – one that is not based on buying and
selling more garments. The gathered stories and images of the general public at community
photo shoots have become an important source and site for reflection for designers working in
sustainability (Local Wisdom, 2019).

Binding Threads

Emotional Attachments – Worn Stories
Along a similar vein but in a different context (entertainment), the Netflix series Worn
Stories, which is an adaptation of Emily Spivack’s book of the same name, focuses on telling
stories of clothing. Both the book and the series share how garments can be imbued with
meaning or experiences beyond their aesthetic. This body of work explores how people go
through similar basic human emotions and how these feelings, connected to experiences,
are linked to the clothing people collect and wear. “A closet is an archive of memories and
experiences,” Spivack says. The experiences we have while wearing a piece of clothing become
imbued on it significantly (Wornstories, n.d.).

Connecting People – IOU
In all of the examples above, storytelling has been studied and explored after the making
process has been completed. It is situated mostly in the pre-production, production and
post-production phases. The focus is on the stories attached to the clothing after the clothing
production phase. An alternate approach that does focus on the narrative during the design
and production process is the IOU project. The IOU project was developed by Kavita Parmar
in 2011. The initiative focussed on the narrative of connection between the makers, weavers,

11

and also wearers of articles of clothing in its collection (BOF, 2012). Even though Parmar
shifted her focus in 2018 and developed a new forum called XTANT, her focus of finding means
of connecting people linked to articles of clothing was still its core value. XTANT was aimed at
supporting artisan communities worldwide and was followed by GUNAKAZI, “a vertical social
network for garment factory workers to help them get visibility in the new digital paradigm”
(Kavita Parmar, n.d.).

Local Wisdom, Worn Stories and IOU explore our attachment to the things we wear –
concentrating on the actions people take over time, on the memories and experiences they
hold on to, on the accumulative stories of people embedded into clothing over time. They are
all inherently relational and collective. Luxury brands and their approach to storytelling, in
contrast, is clearly product-focused. A Western materialist scenario perpetuated in the Global
North, privileges the prerogative to generate aspirational (as opposed to real, lived) scenarios.
Luxury brand-oriented stories invite people to consume and be part of a single narrative and
pre-defined structure.
Interestingly, in all four of these cases above the act of involving the wearer(s) and/or
storyteller in the process of making the clothing from the very beginning is missing. It is this
and the possibility of giving voice to people to talk about their personal stories through the
medium of clothing that I am intent on building. I have a feeling that shifting the fashion design
process towards the act of collaborative storytelling will uncover new voices. I have to specify
that I am not questioning the entire structure of the current fashion system but seeking to
propose a new way of looking at the fashion system and design process that embraces more
stories.

12

Binding Threads

Following this trajectory my subsequent research built
on this interest in the possibility of collaborative storytelling
with clothing, and two key issues of concern that I wanted to
address:

PRE PRODUCTION

PRODUCTION

AFTER PRODUCTION

STORYTELLING TYPE

designer’s single
GUCCI

narration
pre-defnee

•

Linear Eurocentric single narratives

•

The experience of displacement

commodity focused

collectivF

IOU

connectiong PeoplF

The two questions below also helped me frame my work:
•

•

How can sharing stories help in connecting people
going through similar experiences of displacement?

Multi Stories

LOCAL

Accumulative

WISDOM

Stories
Relational Focused

Can tangible visualization of narratives on clothing
help us better understand individual and collective
identity?

WORN

Multi Stories

STORIKS

Accumulative
Stories
Relational Focused

Fashion Brand

Fashion NetˆorŒs and Kntertainment

Single Narration

Collective Narrative

Fig 7. how storytelling is been used in fashion by different brands, fashion networks and entertainment indutries

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03

Connectiong Threads

Binding Threads

Over the past two years, I have taken a practice-based approach to my research.
Practice-based research is a conceptual framework for researchers to integrate creative
practice, creative methods and creative output into the research design and as a part of
the research output (Myers, 2017). It focuses on creative practice as well as the insights,
conceptualization, and theorization generated by practitioners’ reflection on their own
creative practice (Smith & Dean, 2009, p. 5). According to Smith and Dean (2009), the content
and the process of creative practice plays a key role in opening new avenues for knowledge as
well as redefining the meaning of knowledge itself. Practice-based research is characterized
as generating experiential knowledge and recognizes the sometimes tacit and elusive
knowledge that emerges during the design process (Grocott, 2010, p. 18). It is often flexible
in its approach, allowing a variety of methodologies and methods to be incorporated. Since
the concept of displacement, home and identity are things that cannot be clearly articulated
because of the multiple hidden layers, values and meaning, practice-based research was an
effective way for me to generate new insights and knowledge for further development of my
design concepts. It also repositioned me from researcher to maker and facilitator.
My work over the past two years has concentrated on critiquing and suggesting
alternate ways of looking at the contemporary fashion service and design process. In this
regard, my research is located in the domain of speculative design. Imagination is at the
heart of speculative design, as it seeks to offer alternative perspectives on so-called wicked
problems, to create spaces to discuss alternative ways of being and to inspire people’s
imagination to flow freely (Dunne & Raby, 2013, as cited in Ho Tran, 2019). Auger notes that
Speculative design serves two distinct purposes: First, to enable us to think about the future;
second, to critique current practice (Auger, 2013). This is an approach to design that not only
seeks to encourage contemplation on the technological future but also (and most relevant to
my work) provides the opportunity to analyze, critique and re-think contemporary design. It is

14

these latter sets of qualities that relate most to my own and Critical Fashion Practice. As with
all the critical research, fashion practice values a discourse that is speculative and discursive
rather than an aesthetic of resolution and perfection. In other words, it follows an approach
to aesthetics that constantly challenges the beautiful and the good (Geczy & Karaminas,
2018). Critical fashion practice is any item, piece or work of fashion that announces a level of
conceptual functionality that exceeds the capacity of simple clothing (ibid). Critical designs
act as a form of critique and argument that is established through the design of objects and
through the communication of an object’s narrative of use. Considering my practice, this can
be achieved through processes of making and production, scenario building, and storytelling
(Malpass, 2017). By building new scenarios around “what if” questions initiated by storytelling
I have begun to imagine new possibilities and other ways of thinking about the fashion design
process.
In Fashion, a lot of garments start from a story formed in a designer’s mind. In addition
to contributing to the beginning point, the content and the resulting finished piece of clothing,
the story also provides a framework to the fashion design process itself. I argue for the
importance of critically re-evaluating the role of the designer as a sole storyteller, to consider
instead the designer in a role of multi-story enabler. Here is the place where the concept of
pluriversality comes into my practice.
The graphic designer and social justice-focused design researcher Renata M Leitão
shares her perspective on the types of collaboration that occurs between designers and
communities outside of the Centre of Eurocentric Modernity. In a recent paper, she notes
that a lot of research done by designers of the Global North working with communities of
the Global South makes no mention of desires, aspirations, visions of future, and sense of
identity. The communities who receive help in this case have no voice, except to express their

Binding Threads

problems, needs and difficulties. The process starts with an
emphasis on an assumed need or problem and moves toward
a subsequent search for a solution. Leitão argues that “by
focusing on needs right at the start, and not on desire, we are
merely reproducing the world we know it with some minor
tweaks” (Leitão, 2020). The concept of a world with many
centres makes great sense here as the focus should shift from
problems to deeper values. The concept of the Pluriverse
suggested by Arturo Escobar is “a world where many worlds
fit” (Escobar, 2018).
I see the storytelling elements of my MDes projects
as initial attempts towards enabling and validating multiple
ways of being, thinking, knowing and world-making. The
building of such a world needs participatory co-design
strategies and can be characterized as a shift from the design
of discrete objects and ‘things’ to relationships, interactions
and experience for and within complex social systems (Irwin,
et al, 2020). This design is not passive but more of an active
generative process that takes into consideration hidden
values and meanings. In particular, I examine the possibilities
offered by storytelling as an activity that can bridge initial,
exploratory phases and possibly future design activities in
community-based co-creative projects.
Storytelling enables participants to elicit meaning from

Fig 8. Where my research sits

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experience and enhance their capacity for interpretation of
their life and socio-cultural context (Lorini et al., 2017). I see
my future research and design work exploring ever more
inclusive and dynamic ways of storytelling. To that end, I
am interested in the capacity of Digital Storytelling (DST)
as a tool for inclusiveness and to accommodate a variety
of voices. Design researcher, Tacchi (2009), notes that DST
is particularly rewarding when employed in underserved,
disadvantaged and informationally isolated communities,
that it allows these communities to voice their views and take
effect in achieving social change or wider social and political
participation (Tacchi, 2009 as cited in Lorini et al., 2017).
To sum it up, my practice-based research over the past
two years has been situated mostly under the umbrella of
critical speculative design in combination with pluriversal
design. The focus of my work has been the development of
a fashion design process that disrupts singular narrative
processes through the advocacy of pluralistic narratives - the
sharing of many stories. As previously touched upon, the
element of the story has always been part of my practice.
As such I see storytelling as the main characteristic of my

creative practice. Most recently it has become a powerful
design tool that has changed my approach from being a story
author to a story mediator. In this new role of story mediator,
I enable and encourage multiple stories to arise and interact
with one another. I have come to see my role as a weaver of
stories - what, after all, is more valuable than the weaving of
stories?!

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04

Future Threads

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My Story + Heuristic Inquiry
Looking back and reflecting on my Master’s journey, I realize that every single action
I have taken on makes perfect sense. My personal journey with all its challenges taught me
a new way of looking at the design process that is more than just solving a problem. A way
of designing that starts from embracing yourself fully. Similarly, heuristic inquiry is directly
concerned with self-inquiry and the researcher’s lived experiences becoming the focus of the
research (Moustakas, 1990). Throughout this process, the researcher “experiences a growing
sense of self-awareness and self-knowledge, promoted by self-search, self-dialogue and selfdiscovery” (Given, 2008). So instead of shutting down personal challenges, the designer can
embrace them and reflect back on them. This way of designing is so powerful and can also be a
healing process.

18

and self-exploration through material practice enabled the concept of storytelling to emerge
in order to connect people with displacement experience. In telling my own story as a person
who experienced displacement and transcultural identity2, I was both the researcher and
research participant. I felt paralyzed a lot of times with some overwhelming emotions. What
helped me get through and survive these moments was the connection to others and giving
myself space to reflect on those connections. With its inherently personal and compassionate
approach, heuristic inquiry embodies open discussion with participants and “allows
participants to have their stories understood and their voices heard” (Moustakas, 1990).
Participants in heuristic research are considered co-researchers and co-creators who are
integral to this process. the next phase of my research, “Many Stories”, detail how this appears
in the work I have done with others.

My research path aligned with the proposition that design should recognize and include
the self as a critical function of practice. “Personhood, informed by culture and aesthetic
sensibilities, directs and determines how design is mediated and realized. A diffusion of
uncertainty, anxiety, unease, and longing, experienced and felt in the doing of design became
the portal through which research found its pathway” (Gaur, 2020). As such, the researcher
can become fully immersed in the research as an active tool; an instrument to gather insights
and meaning that are often tacit, hidden or denied (Moustakas, 2001, cited in Hiles, 2001).
Having said that, the initial context of this research was self-discovery and storytelling based
on heuristic inquiry. I started reflecting back on stories that are usually hidden or denied.
As a relational self1, newly immigrant and a designer, the process of heuristic inquiry
1
“relational self (1) is self-knowledge that is linked in memory to knowledge about significant others; (2) exists at multiple levels of specificity; (3) is capable of being contextually or chronically activated; and (4) is comprised
of self-conceptions and a constellation of other self-aspects (e.g., motives, self-regulatory strategies) that characterize the self when relating to significant others” (Chen, 2011).

2

People who experience a social and psychological transformation to create a different sense of self—identity as multiple—through experiencing the interweaving and exchange of human cultures (Nguyen & Benet-Martinez, 2010).

Many Stories + Narrative Inquiry

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Where and How We Connect
Studying in a corner of my home and participating in a virtual learning space with people
in different places all over the globe, I was acutely aware of the distinction between place and
space. “Space is more abstract than place. Space and place require each other for definition.
From the security and stability of the place we are aware of the openness, freedom, and
threat of space, and vice versa.” (Tuen, 1977). Existing in-between, in this hybrid space, can
be challenging and scary. It made us, our MDes cohort, vulnerable. Building relationships was
our way of countering this – of weaving ourselves through uncertainty, connecting to our

program, school and physically distant new friends. It was our way of keeping going.
These virtual connections with peers, described above, set in a peculiar time (the C OVID
Pandemic) was the beginning of a group project called “Transitional”, which would serve to
inform and shape my work in many significant ways as I moved to Canada and continued to
develop my thesis. The Transitional project was a collaborative action that included Marcia
Higuchi, Yun Xiao, Meghna Mitra and myself.

Fig 9. Transitional Group members (from left to right: Marcia Higuchi, Meghna Mitra, myself, Yun Xian)

Binding Threads

The shifting away from one’s own culture centre
allows a look on one hand into what one has left, and
another into what one must learn. As a consequence, one
lives in the spaces between, drawing from two or more
cultural networks and fashioning a new cultural node,
where the new self is at the centre”.
- Gaur, 2020

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Binding Threads

The project’s intent was to track and share our
experiences of transitioning from our home countries (Brazil,
Saudi Arabia, Iran and China) to Vancouver. Together, we
decided to explore our trajectories and personal reflections
on these experiences through “SHARING SESSIONS” that
we planned to have once we had all arrived in Vancouver and
were out of quarantine. Between June and September 2021
we each took turns guiding the others in the group. When
we met we shared our stories, and our skills following the
prompts set by whoever led a particular session (we held 4
in total). We met in person, made things together - learning
and listening and also empathizing. Our bonds and the
connections were made through threads, fabric, paint, food
and joy. We enjoyed every moment together through the
process.
Telling our stories was a way of opening up and of
healing and caring for each other through design. Stories can
be considered as a means to share visions, values, desires and
expectations of the actors involved. Storytelling represents
one of the manay different ways in which one can develop
design actions, especially when one collaborates or deals
with different people (Manzini cited in Bertolotti et al., 2016).
“People shape their daily lives by stories of who they and
others are and as they interpret their past in terms of these
stories. Story, in the current idiom, is a portal through which
a person enters the world and by which, their experience of
the world is interpreted and made personally meaningful”
(Connelly & Clandinin, 2006).

Fig 10. a glimpse of things we did together in our Transitional sharing sessions

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Moving to a new place can be complex and emotional
for people. When people share their personal stories through
words, often it is difficult to communicate inexpressible or
complex elements such as emotions. Acknowledging this,
I aimed to explore the Narrative Inquiry method for my
sharing session, which I will explain in further detail in the
next sections. Narrative Inquiry is “the study of experience
as story… first and foremost a way of thinking about the
experience” (Connelly & Clandinin, 2006). Narrative inquiry
focuses “not only on individuals’ experiences but also on
the social, cultural, and institutional narratives within which
individuals’ experiences are constituted, shaped, expressed,
and enacted” (Clandinin & Rosiek cited in Towers et., al,
2017).

“Stories go in circles. They don’t go in straight lines.
It helps if you listen in circles because there are stories
inside and between stories, and finding your way through
them is as easy as hard as finding your way home. Part of
finding is getting lost, and when you are lost you start to
open up and listen.”
- Tafoya as cited in Wilson, 1995
This quote above resonated with all of us in the Transitional Group. We returned to it often.

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Together: Arranging a space to be deeply
connected
The sharing session that I led for the Transitional project drew on my own background
and experiences- it was based on clothing and storytelling. It was also based on my own
background as a woman and designer from Iran. When I designed my workshop, I wanted
to create a space for comfortable friendly conversation. An element that helped a lot in the
flow of the conversation I led was the arrangement of the space itself. Before we gathered I
placed four large pieces of unbleached muslin fabric on the ground for my peers to sit on while
we talked and drew. The arrangement of cloth on the floor resembled the Iranian culture of
sitting and gathering together on carpets. Interestingly weaving mini carpets was a meditative
practice that I took on during my time in quarantine only several weeks prior to this sharing
session.

The setting of the workshop and how everyone was on the
ground gave the sensation that everyone is equal.”
- Meghna Mitra

Fig 11. one of the Mini Carpets I wove with Persian Rug Weaving Technique During Self-quarantine
(the dimentions are 3.5 by 4.5 cm)

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Binding Threads

In my culture when people sit on the ground, it means
that they are close to one another and that they feel very
comfortable being together - both emotionally and physically.
I had the privilege of being the last to hold a workshop in our
Transitional Group. All the previous sharing sessions, where
my peers had invited us to cook, share dreams, paint and
embroider together, had gradually built a close relationship
and bond between the four of us. This allowed time and
emotional space for reflection. As designers, we can visualize
potentialities and give them the possibility to be translated
into practice, pointing to innovative sustainable alternatives
and possibly creating the preconditions for them to happen.
Stories can be considered as a tool for reflection; yet, this
reflection also informs the possibility for new actions to take
place: what is now only possible can be brought into action.
Examples of these meanings are given in our contemporary
context, for instance by the sustainable qualities formulated
by Ezio Manzini, such as the qualities of slow time, good work,
deep relationships, and complexity, which are antithetical
to what we can consider the mainstream qualities, such
as fastness, efficiency in mass production, etc. (Manzini &
Tassinari, 2012).

Fig 12 & 13. workshop arrangement

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Binding Threads

Sharing: Clothing, Storytelling
and Drawing
Before we met for my sharing session, I gave my three
design colleagues and friends a form that asked them to
think about and share perspectives connected to the types
of clothing and colours they wore in their home country and
here in this new place – in Canada (see appendix). This was
created in response to my own challenge as a newcomer
to Canada. Shortly after I arrived in Canada I started
questioning the types of clothing and my colour choice. I
was questioning my previous choice of colours and I wanted
to see how the Transitional Group think of this. I also asked
them to each bring a piece of clothing to the workshop that
had sentimental value for them. When we met, we started
our time together in conversation, discussing how we each
responded to the prompts, sharing our choices of clothing
and colours.

Following a meaningful conversation that offered
up new insights about clothing and cultures we came
from, Marcia, Yun and Meghna then showed the pieces
of clothing they brought with them. We continued
sharing the stories behind the articles we had brought

and the value they carried for us. After this, I asked
another a set of questions about their hometown,
mother language, identity, travel experience and stories
connected to this new home country, Canada. My
intent was to use heuristic inquiry as a tool for creating
more conversation. Based on this approach, the poetic
capacity of storytelling is used to understand and

interpret personal meanings behind one’s experience.
The session not only focused on oral and written stories
but also tangible visualization of the stories being told.
The Transitional Group not only shared their stories
with words but also through drawing on the large (1 by
1.5 meters) rectangular pieces of fabric.

The piece of clothing that we brought was so significant as well
because there were these pieces of material that we could talk about.
It was so amazing to have something to touch. We tried to do that with
the thing we brought from home, like the soil. But they have never been
used this way to tell a story or sentimental attachment.”
- Marcia Higuchi

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26

Fig 14. painted pieces of cloth after the workshop

I loved the part that we shared about the clothing codes for
each of our countries and I felt so comfortable asking about your
choice of clothing and your feeling. I will not feel comfortable
starting this conversation just with other people. The workshop
created the space to ask questions about other’s cultures, even if
you had a bias toward a country. Because we knew there was a
safe space for sharing.”
- Marcia Higuchi

Images are more communicative than words. This is the reason why
storytelling has become so relevant to design for social innovation, as an
instrument of co-design, participation, and binding people together (Manzini
cited in Bertolotti et al., 2016). As work in the field of Design for Social
Innovation can attest, storytelling is a highly connective medium. Applied
within co-design and participatory design scenarios, it binds people together.
The sharing of ideas, thoughts and experiences - of telling stories through
visualization is as much of a design tool as a sketch, a prototype or a map is
(Manzini as cited in Bertolotti et al., 2016). My own experience, sitting on the
studio floor with the Transitional Group at Emily Carr University validates
this for me.

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Feedback from Transitional Group
The space I created and the prompts I invited my
Transitional peers to respond to generated stories and
emotional connections. They reacted to each other’s stories by
making marks on some smaller pieces of cloth and attaching
them to the bigger pieces of fabric (similar to commenting on
a post on social media). The intention behind it was initially my
personal desire to be both connected to other individuals who,
like I, had recently experienced moving to a new country and to
give voice to displacement stories that are usually hidden in the
design process.
I received surprisingly positive feedback regarding my
workshop from all the participants. The only negative feedback
was that it was long in duration. The sharing session impacted
my peers’ perspective towards personal and collaborative
storytelling and its impact on the design process as well as
insights on giving credit to the personal context in their own
design practice. My prompts and questions not only provoked
sentimental responses but also created an intimate space for
participants to talk about personal concerns. “Storytelling
can be considered a design tool for telling complex stories
and situations, which otherwise it would be too difficult to
represent” (Manzini as cited in Bertolotti et al., 2016).

Fig 15. Transitional Group’s first reaction to the arrangement of the workshop

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“We had a lot of joy in the space. We were enjoying
ourselves, we laughed and had fun. There is this wonderful
picture that Yun is lying on the fabric. There is one chapter
of the Design in Nature, Louise’s book, that talks about the
feeling of being vulnerable when you are lying on the ground
and when you are horizontal, there is no hierarchy. Cause
everyone is on the same level; no one is on the couch.”
- Marcia Higuchi

28

“Talking to you guys opened up more ideas and that was
my experience with your workshop. As for my practice, I am
just getting to put some context to it. The workshop that
we did helped us find what is our personal context because
we were coming from so many different perspectives and
we were asked so many questions about ourselves and you
cannot help but think about your own context.”
- Meghna Mitra

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“Love is the commitment we make to others and our
workshops were applied practice to what it means to be
committed to one another. All our workshops were the
embody acknowledgement. All the stories we shared in your
workshop, we drew it and we painted it and when I am going
to think about it, I will think about Meghna’s painting or
Yun’s painting. It is not like let me think about the stories they
said because they are in the fabric. So it is a totally different
experience and we will remember them because of the action
of making them together.”
- Marcia Higuchi

29

“Your workshop changed totally how our own stories and
our personal experience is so important to our practice. They
inform everything we do. We cannot be discounted from this
fact. That is the biggest change in my practice for sure to
acknowledge how important it is to bring my personal stories
and also work in collaboration. How important it is to know
how Elham’s, Meghna’s or Yun’s lives were and where did they
come from. That is for sure the storytelling element from your
workshop.”
- Marcia Higuchi

Making: a new relationship with the
process

Binding Threads

After my sharing session with the Transitional Project
team, I gave myself some time to think. I hung the three pieces
of cloth in my studio space, waiting and thinking about how best
to give the stories shared with me a new context and meaning
beyond pieces of fabric. After one month of sitting with it and
thinking about my own strengths and experience as a designer,
I made the decision to use the story cloth to create a line of
clothing.
The process I embarked on, while rooted in my past
experience in fashion design, was totally different in so many
ways. Transitioning the fabric filled with personal stories into
garments to be worn was touching. I constantly thought of
each and every story as I cut through the fabric. I felt a strong
attachment to every thread of the fabric.
Contrary to the common contemporary fashion design
process where the designer creates the pattern pieces for a
garment and then cuts the fabric accordingly (with a focus
on maximizing efficient fabric usage), I had placed myself in
a position where I needed to do the inverse. I found myself
adjusting the patterns I was using to the fabric. I spent my time
working to assure that the stories on the fabric did not get cut
apart or disappear in the process. Because I wanted to keep as
many of the drawn stories intact as possible I did not cut through
them but rather adjusted the silhouettes of my garments
instead.

Fig 16 & 17. making Process with the Fabrics from My Sharing Session

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Through Photography: Continued
Storytelling and Connection

Binding Threads

Having spent so much time and attention on making
garments deeply embedded with stories, I wanted to keep the
process going. Photography became my next means. I asked two
friends, Nikoo Farvardin and Ghazal Jenab, who also had moved
to Canada from Iran to join me and model the clothes from my
story collection. Our shared experiences of moving created
a fruitful conversation before the photoshoot, contributing
to how we shaped the shooting scenario, theme, colours and
the locations we used. We decided to continue showing and
finding ways to express the transitional experience of moving.
The pictures of ourselves in the garments focused on hectic
life, connection, public spaces, mother language, loneliness and
more. Based on real people and real stories, the whole process
was filled with value. Everyone involved felt connected and
emotionally attached to this way of expressing what it means to
move to a new unfamiliar place.
Throughout the entire process – from the sharing session
to my making of clothing, to the photoshoot – I could see a
thread connecting people together – the same experience of
displacement. Some of the people involved have never met each
other but the pieces of clothing created a connection that drew
everyone in – a new sort of visual language and a new way of
expression formed.
Fig 18. continued storytelling and connection (photo by Mohammadhossein Sharifi)

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Fig 19 to 23. continued storytelling and connection

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Fig 24 & 25. continued storytelling and connection (photos by Mohammadhossein Sharifi)

33

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Fig 26. continued storytelling and connection (photo by Mohammadhossein Sharifi)

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05

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35

Unexpected Responses
In September 2021 I shared my work and images of the
clothing collection of stories to the university community in
a formal presentation. I was shocked and humbled to receive
so much positive feedback and encouragement. We have a
WhatsApp group for the Transitional project. The messages that
I received during and after my presentation was so emotive. The
feeling of their story being told in a new form for my peers was
valuable for the members of the Transitional group. Moreover,
the new medium (clothing) seemed to have given the stories
a stronger voice. The stories my peers had drawn on the large
pieces of fabric had laid out on the floor in August 2021 were
filled with wonderful mark-making, for a while, they had hung
in my studio and attracted people’s attention, but the context
of clothing, the storyboard behind the collection and the
photography added many more layers and even more meaning
to the stories.
Feedback and responses to my work have come from many
different places. Some I anticipated and others were a complete
surprise. The first time this occurred was when I brought the
clothing to campus just prior to the photoshoot. People I passed
in the halls, in the studio, in the elevator were curious and
wanted to know more - their enthusiasm and compliments about
the clothing and the concept behind pieces were surprising
and encouraging. The second time this happened was while

Binding Threads

36

photographing the garments in public spaces and streets. The
third was in a more formal setting after I presented my work
to the Emily Carr community. Members of the audience shared
how they wished they had been part of the storytelling circle
experience and could also have their own pieces of clothing
embedded with visual narrative. I was fascinated by how
the stories - even without any translation or explanation –
communicated to others in such a strong way.

When the fabrics were on the wall, it was like an
exhibition. You didn’t have any interaction with them.”
- Meghna Mitra
Fig 27. reaction to the pieces of clothing
from the Transitional Group during my
summer presentation

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“Your work got me thinking about the ways cloth
could be used. When it becomes clothing, you have to
interact with it like feel the material and it goes out
into everyday life. Before I was just doing embroidery
randomly, in a book or whatever pieces of scrap cloth I
had. I have never thought of being based on a garment
and how a garment is a different context.”
- Meghna Mitra

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Workshop Outcomes
and Future Directions
It is fair to say that my collaboration with the Transitional group and what came after the
workshop was the turning point in my research. I received three main insights out of this process:
•

people were curious to know the meaning behind the clothing

•

they wanted to be involved in this way of storytelling

•

they showed a keen interest to buy and own clothing like this

Another key takeaway and a personal area of concern as I thought through my next steps was
the concept of immigration. I intentionally decided to move away from it and focus on a broader
concept of displacement. As a relational self and new immigrant, I was concerned that focusing
only on the immigration experience could inadvertently encourage further marginalization
and limit valuable connections between people. I was not interested in including some voices
and excluding others in the same way that the Western fashion system does. I wanted to find a
different route that embraced many perspectives from all sides of this aspect of contemporary
society. By shifting away from the immigrant experience to the stories around displacement more
people are involved and impacted other than those who experience the moving.

Another thing that got me thinking was the talk
about immigration. I moved a lot throughout my life
but I have never thought of myself as an immigrant.
It was mostly because of all the moving. I knew I was
going to move away from this place eventually so it
didn’t feel like immigration. But immigration sound
permanent. But if you move constantly can you call
yourself an immigrant?”
- Meghna Mitra

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06

Digital Threads

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40

When we began the Fall 2021 semester I decided to take the insights described in the previous section above and use them to begin prototyping a possible new way of engaging with clothing that
considers both collaboration and storytelling. Returning to the lived experience of initially connecting with peers and colleagues digitally via Zoom I started a new set of conversations. I found myself
brainstorming with other design fellows who had also had moving experiences. Through these interactions with these people, I began to see the possibility of digital space.

Storytelling Leading to Ideation
After doing all the previous work, I was in a state of flux trying to decide what to do next. Now
that I reflect back on the arrangement of this second group of designers made up of old friends
from Iran, my home country, I can see that in this phase I was beginning the act of mediating multistories. What started as an informal friendly conversation amongst a group of friends ended up
shifting towards an exchange of stories about relocation and moving. Compared to the Transitional
group, this second group reflected on moving experiences that had occurred (for most of them) a
while ago; two to three years back. Earlier I had a shared experience of moving with new friends
who were from all over the word (Transitional Group) in a peculiar and condensed period of time
(during the Pandemic.) This time I was talking with people who moved from the same culture and
place as I did over an extended period of time. This state was a beginning of a new chapter. This led
to a creative process to help me ideate and think through possible new scenarios for expanding on
the main outcomes related to the work I did so far. Half of the people in the ideation session were
already involved in the process and modelled for the photography. The experience of wearing the
pieces of clothing connected invisible threads between them and the stories behind the garments.
The objective for this ideation session was shaped around generating more ideas by returning to
the moving experiences people had preciously shared with me and brainstorming possible ways

of extending this experience outwards to others. Storytelling was a tool in this process again as
participants started sharing their own moving stories, their emotions and challenges to create a
space for ideation as well as empathizing.
We ended up getting together twice. Storytelling, sharing, and ideating usually for about
ninety minutes. Each session began with sharing some stories of the previous workshop,
describing the identified needs and the context to create a clear picture of the research
for participants. These brainstorming sessions created the space for exchanging ideas and
experiences between myself and the participants. As the coordinator of these brainstorming
sessions, I aimed to create a comfortable space to inspire creative thinking. I encouraged everyone
to ignore the feasibility of ideas and to be mindful of their judgment towards others’ ideas. As
the participants had very diverse design backgrounds in industrial design, apparel design and
interaction design the space was very generative.

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Strategies We Used - Who Why What How
The ideas we came up with were shaped around the insights from previous research that
had been narrowed down into four areas of WHO, WHAT, WHY and How. This approach was very
helpful, enabling me to easily clarify the goals for the ideation phase. Together we came up with a
lot of ideas and then evaluated them based on these four areas.

At the end of our second session, we narrowed down our ideas and discussed the
possibility of combining them. This led to the formation of a digital platform concept
that would invite contributors to share, read and wear moving experiences and could
act as both an initiator and holder of stories - providing new ways for clothing to be
accessed and made.
My aim became to explore and create a digital platform as a tool and a core space for:
• sharing and connecting stories that have never happened in the fashion design
process
• the formation of a new digital system that is more inclusive
• a space that gives the user control over the amount and the content they share

Fig 28. ideas were evaluated based on these criteria

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42

Accessing Stories
We realized that there seemed to be three different ways
for people1 to engage with storytelling through clothing.
- Storytellers: People who want to share their moving
stories and get connected to a community with a similar
experience
- Storyreaders: People who want to read and get to know
other people’s stories of displacement. They most likely have a
moving experience or they generally like reading other people’s
stories. Throughout the whole research, I am trying not to
exclude a group or marginalized a group.
- Storywearers (Storybuyers): People who admire new ways
of looking at fashion, value creation and connection to people.
They look for new trends and they want to support a business
with social values.

Fig 29 & 30. the initial rough idea

1
These characteristics are useful to designers - often referred to as
persona types

Binding Threads

Carlos’s Story

Liling’s Story

Mia’s Story

Age 25-35

Age 20-30

Age 30-40

Carlos has recently moved to Vancouver for studying a Master in
biology. He was born and raised in Brazil and moved within the country a lot from Rio de Janeiro to São Paulo to São Luís. Despite all his
moving experience, he finds Canada quite differently. He feels like
living in Vancouver is so fast-paced and sometimes he misses the
Brazilian lifestyle. His circle of communication is limited to a few
classmates with whom he mostly talks about school work. The
moving experience was both rewarding and challenging for him and
he wishes he was able to talk to others who had the same experience and hear their stories.

Mia is a student who is from Alberta and recently moved to
Vancouver. The hardest part oftheir experience was living alone in a
different city compared to thier hometown. Though they speaks the
same language,they see lots of cultural disconnection. They know
that they are not probably the only one missing their family and
home and likes to know more about similar experiences and other
people's perspectives

Liling is a second-generation immigrant. Her parents are from China,
while she was born in Quebec. She moved to Vancouver a couple of
years ago. She trusts her choices of clothing and is willing to try new
styles. She has a great sense of fashion and supports businesses that
are local and concerned for social values. She trusts her choices of
clothing and is willing to try new styles.

Pain point & needs

Pain point & needs

- Talking was never his strength and he finds it even more difficult
within the new culture and language
- Being able to express himself with the help of communication technology

Goals

- Engage with others
- Share his moving experience
with others

Interest

- Writing
- Reading books
- Thrifting

- They are so introvert and speaking about their emotions have
always been hard for them
- Being part of a community with similar moving experience

Goals

- Get to know people with
moving experience
- Regulating their emotions and
thoughts

Interest

- Reading posts and blogs
- Drawing

Pain point & needs

-Even though she is trying to support local businesses she spends so
much money buying fast brand apparel that she doesn't need
- She thinks that social value-driven brands need to depict their

Goals

- Have a unique style
- Support local businesses

Technology

Technology

Technology

Internet
Software
Mobile Apps
Social Networks
Early Adopter

Internet
Software
Mobile Apps
Social Networks
Early Adopter

Internet
Software
Mobile Apps
Social Networks
Early Adopter

Fig 31. personas for the initial idea (from left to right: Storyteller, Storyreader and Storywearer)

nterest

- Fashion and Styling
- Playing the Guitar
- Shopping

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A Digital Platform

Binding Threads

44

I can see the reflection of the physical and digital spaces
I experienced throughout my MDes education in the way my
work has shaped. As a cohort, we have been in-between physical
and digital spaces because of the pandemic and I can say that
the weight of the digital space outweighed the physical space.
Being physically distanced from my peers I used the digital space
for collaborative making right from the beginning of our studies.
On the other hand, I was dealing with some complications and
uncertainty about my move to Canada. So with help of the digital
space, I started some acts of healing and connection with my
peers. I see lots of human connection when I look back at all my
studio actions and practices. I always wanted to hear people’s
stories and reflect on them in my practice. I remember in one of
my actions I had this personal challenge with the concept of love
and I asked my cohort members to define love in their language
and send me a recording of their voice saying it in their mother
tongue. The connection and the making (as often the case)
helped me overcome my personal challenge at that time.
I drew on their responses sent to me from afar - digitally
- and my own making practice to inform my next steps,
increasingly aware that the lived experience is never separated
from a designer’s process. Living in the time of COVID shifted
the way we live and has changed our social interactions. This
situation has made me aware of the value of the digital space

Fig 32 to 35. Language of Love shawl
connectin, making and final design

we have at our hands. “Connected via distributed, non-hierarchical systems or networks. As nodes in the network, we have the capacity to reach one
another and engage in a manner and to an extent that has never been experienced before.” (Fraser et al., 2015). Reading this pre-pandemic observation
made by my supervisor led me to reflect on my own lived experiences. While digital interactions have their limitations and challenges they also offer an
opportunity space for design such as seamless connectivity, inclusivity and flexibility.

45

Binding Threads

Generally speaking, this project broadened my vision into co-design where my audiences actively played a role in different phases of my
design research — from the early exploration phase to workshops, generative and evaluative phases. The whole idea was gradually built upon all the
interactions and involvement of people throughout the last two years. My personal challenge intertwined with the research approach challenges taught
me that design requires a flexible and strategic approach. Design is never a solid path and will form based on a sequent of events and experiences.

Caring Connections 2
Collaboraitve Makings

Fall Semester 2020

Caring Connections

Shaping o
Transitional roup

Spring Semester 202s

Caring Connections

Transitional Sharring
Sessions

Summer Semester 202s

Sharing Stories 2
Collaborative Making

Sharing Stories 2
Collaborative Making

Fall Semester 202s

Moving to Canada
My Material Practice
Digital Space (Learning + Communication)
Connection to MDes Peers

Fig 36. how the digital space of learning and communication impacted my material practice

Sharing Stories 2
Collaborative Making

Spring Semester 2022

Co-creation - Second Clothing
and Storytelling Workshop

Binding Threads

After narrowing the ideas down to a final concept of a digital platform, I
drew on co-creation again in order to continue to develop the work. My second
Clothing and Storytelling workshop, held in December 2021, did not use the
tactic of drawing on large pieces of fabric. This time I created worksheets that
asked participants in and around the Grad Studies and Undergrad Industrial
Design Studio to choose and draw their stories on four different clothing
silhouettes that I provided on a sheet of paper. I used this as a low fidelity
prototype and as a means to quickly test my concept of storytelling on clothing
using a digital platform. I gave the forms to 20 people in and around the studios at
Emily Carr inviting individuals who have had to move from one place to another
to share their experience by providing a glimpse of memory about three main
themes: home, identity, moving. Each theme was accompanied by a question
prompt:
Home - Tell us about home. How would you define home?
Identity - Describe identity in your terms.
Moving - Share a significant experience of moving from one place to another
place.
Fig 37. my peers participating in the workshop

46

Binding Threads

People were asked to write down a couple of sentences responding to these themes and then visually share an aspect of the story they had written about
through mark-making that could either be abstract or detailed, symbolic/representational or gestural - whatever was most comfortable for them.
The focus of the research, as with the earlier co-creation workshop in Summer 2021 was not about creating beautiful marks, but rather, about finding alternate
ways of sharing and valuing real stories. I was interested to see if this would help me to develop the framework idea and refine it. I wanted to see:
•

where participants would put their marks on the clothing silhouettes

•

the clothing forms they choose to decorate/mark make on

•

what colours do they choose for mark-making?

•

what sort of stories do they share and how much?

•

how did the participant’s stories impact one another (or not)? In this open workshop, I would put each participant’s drawing contribution up on a wall so that
the new participants could see and read the previous stories.

47

Binding Threads

Storyboard
Based on personas and the outcome from the co-creation session, three storyboards were created to help refine the final idea.

Fig 38, 39 & 40. from left to right: storyboards of the storyteller, Storyreader and Storywearer

48

Binding Threads

STORY READER

Learns a out Binding Threads fro :
Word of outh
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STORY WEARER

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a out the stories

System Map

Stories

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Stories

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Dress

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Pants

Shorts

Shawl

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the Clothing

Front

Fig 41. final digital platform system map based on the personas

Back

Save stories to her personal
li rary

Add to Shopping Card

49

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Now considering how the proposed system works
based on the storyteller’s contribution, I moved to the next
step where I explored making the stories shared in the
second storytelling and clothing workshop. As a refresher, I
did a low-fidelity prototype to test how storytellers would
share their stories on the platform. Moving to the next step
made some pieces of clothing based on the stories shared
in the workshop for either the storyteller themselves or a
hypothetical storywearer.
Fig 44 to 51. some of the stories shared in Second Clothing & Storytelling workshop
(shared with permission from participants)

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Expanding on
Technology

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From Communication to
Production

for the making of the clothing, I started learning new
technologies and their capacities for helping me further develop
the concept of storytelling on clothing. I wanted to explore
different ways of making stories on textile by machines such
as TC2 Jacquard Loom, Felting Loom and Digital Embroidery
Machine. Before this, I explored a more traditional handinvolved craft process to convey the stories. The workshop with
the transitional group was held with the storytellers drawing
their stories on the pieces of fabric. But this time I invited
machines to help me recreate those stories as well as make some
stories shared at the second Slothing and Storytelling workshop.
In other words, I intended to re-contextualize the traditional
material making by digital form making to see the test the
possibility of bringing the stories into the clothing.
Fig 52 & 53. Marcia’s story from Transitional Sharring session – woven by TC2 Jacquard Loom

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Fig 54, 55, & 56. final wears based on Meghna and Yun’s story shared in Second Storytelling &
Clothing workshop - done by Digital Embroidery Machine & Felting Loom

54

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55

Fig 57 & 58. final collection based on Meghna Mitra’s story
shared in Second Storytelling & Clothing workshop
(photo by Mohammadhossein Sharifi)

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Fig 59 & 60. final collection based on Meghna Mitra ’s
story shared in Second Storytelling & Clothing workshop
(photo by Mohammadhossein Sharifi)

56

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Fig 61 & 62. final collection based on Yun Xian ’s story
shared in Second Storytelling & Clothing workshop
(photo by Mohammadhossein Sharifi)

57

Fig 63. final collection based on Yun Xian ’s story shared
in Second Storytelling & Clothing workshop
(photo by Mohammadhossein Sharifi)

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photo credit: Skylar Kang - https://www.pexels.com/

07

Threads to be Woven

Conclusion and Future Directions
This work was initiated with my personal experience
of moving and further developed by its connection to
similar experiences of others. Early explorations provided
an understanding of the potentials of visual and/oral
storytelling for healing, expression and connection. Through
workshops with peers, clothing was identified as a new
context for storytelling. That is because clothing is not only
tangible and interactive but also evocative. What started as
a personal expression of immigration challenges, ended up
communicating to so many people with different experiences
of displacement. The fact that there were value and meaning
behind every visual element of clothing and that every story
is based on real experiences drew a lot of people into my
way of storytelling. So my work gradually expanded to invite
more people into this way of storytelling and even people
who never had any experience of moving were interested
in owning a piece of clothing with such narratives. All of
these interactions showed a lot of potential for fashion
practitioners to move toward a more personal narrative in
their practice.
This research aimed to create a space for connecting
people with experiences of moving to new places. Studying
in the time of the Pandemic created both challenges and an
opportunity space for collaboration and co-creation. Having

a shared moving experience with my cohort in the middle of
our online study was a turning point in shaping the concept
of storytelling on garments. This project broadened my
vision into co-creation design for fashion where my audience
actively played a role in different phases of my design
research. All of my work was done collaboratively with people
who have lived experiences of displacement, from the early
making to the photography of garments, and final ideation
and evaluation phases. It was practice-based research based
on real stories and real experiences.
I explored a way of designing clothing that is more
collaborative and expressive by asserting the importance of
evaluating the role of the designer as a solo storyteller and
considering instead the role of multi-story enabler. Focusing
on this way of designing, the final design is a digital platform
that invites people to share, read and wear displacement
stories with others and act as both the initiator and holder of
stories.
Right from the beginning of this research, I knew there
are a lot of layers to this project. My project is just part of the
proposed fashion structure that needs to be fully refined and
structured to be optimized for real implementation. Moving
forward, one focal point of the project that needs legitimate

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and ethical research is how to give credit and compensate
for the stories and the drawing that storytellers share in the
system. If the stories are being used in the design process
how to deal with the ownership of stories being used? Who
own the stories? And how the system can value the stories
when it comes to commercial benefits?
Moreover, in my attempt to change the role of designer
from a single storyteller to a multi-story enabler, there
have been some times that I questioned my authorship.
Throughout the research, I tried my best to give voices to
stories but in the end, I cannot ignore the fact that I did a
lot of authoring. This occurred at different points in time
when I wanted to translate the stories into garments, ideate,
photoshoots and even write the thesis draft. The proposed
research has never aimed to take away authorship from
the designer but more of proposing a new way of authoring
that embraces more voices other than of the designers
themselves. Taking this approach, as a maker I ended up being
in dialogue with stories and the stories became my material
and my way of connection.
The storytelling element of my practice was an attempt
to enable and validate multiple ways of being, thinking,
knowing and world-making. Such an approach needs
participatory co-design strategies and can be characterized

as a shift from the design of discrete objects and ‘things’ to
relationships, interactions and experience (Irwin, et al, 2020).
My take on co-design through this research varies from what
co-design was originally defined, which refers to a process
involving customers and users of products or services in their
development. Instead of focusing on agendas and solutions,
the co-design process in this research was shaped around
shared values, meanings and the common good through the
act of making together, conversation and workshops. My
approach was in line with Sanders and Stappers’s (2008)
definition of co-design, which refers to “any act of collective
creativity, i.e. creativity that is shared by two or more people”.
They used the term co-design in a narrower sense to refer
to the “collective creativity as it is applied across the whole
span of a design process”. I have observed that this collective
creativity enables the shift from single storytelling to multistory enabling. In the process, the stories shared jumped
from one medium to another. I followed the stories leads –
mediating the deeply personal narratives across a wide range
of mediums.
My next step is to give voice to all the stories shared
with me. I want to explore the dialogue I can create on
clothing between my personal stories and those similar to
mine.

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The jacket I made from the drawing with Meghna’s story from my Second Storytelling and Clothing workshop held
around the studios at Emily Carr University (see section Co-creation - Second Clothing and Storytelling Workshop) instigated
a lot of unexpected conversation with random people who saw the jacket as I moved through the process of making it. When I
finished the jacket and showed it to Meghna, she was unbelievably emotional and asked to wear the jacket. Wearing the jacket,
she peered down at herself and the marks on the fabric, going through all the details of her story. We found ourselves in a
wonderful loop, cycling back to the space of conversations and stories that she had shared in the workshop.

I realised that as an enabler my role was not
just about giving voices to stories but also how the
stories continue – a process that involves translation,
conversation, caring and returning to stories.”
- Me

Fig 64. Meghna going through all the details after
wearing the jacket made out of her own story

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63

“Stories go in circles. They don’t go in straight lines.
It helps if you listen in circles because there are stories
inside and between stories, and finding your way through
them is as easy as hard as finding your way home. Part of
finding is getting lost, and when you are lost you start to
open up and listen.”
- Tafoya as cited in Wilson, 1995

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References &
Appendix

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Malpass, M. (2017). Introducing critical design. In Critical design in context: History,
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chalayan-storyteller-and-technology-wizard/
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Publishing.

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Appendix

Fig 60, 61 & 62. the Forms I asked Transitional Group to fill in prior to the cClothing &
Storytelling Workshop

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Fig 63. more wireframes for final platform idea

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Fig 64. media release agreement for second sclothing and st[orytelling workshop

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EMILY CARR UNIVERSITY OF ART + DESIGN
© Elham Atighi Lorestani, 2022

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