Collaged identities: Print patterns for the future

London – Graduate design student Jane Han Zhang has created a collection of printed textiles that explore how increased global mobility will affect future perceptions of cultural identity.

In her project, The Juxtaposition of Cultures, Han Zhang experiments with merging visual elements characteristic of different countries – Chinese calligraphy, English nature and a colour palette inspired by Indian craft and landscape – and printing them onto garments. The result is a collection of soft-pleated textiles that can be wrapped around the body as an expression of one's identity and documentation of individual migration patterns.

Han Zhang, who is graduating from the Printed Textiles MA course at the Royal College of Art, was inspired by the constant rise in global mobility and migration patterns between countries. She predicts that as a consequence we will need to re-invent the concept of cultural heritage. ‘People no longer spend their lives in one country or even on one continent,’ Han Zhang tells LS:N Global. ‘If you are moving between different cultures, why would you have to pick one visual typology that reflects your identity?’

For more examples of designs inspired by cultural dialogue, read our Seed on Euro Craft. Look at our Seed and Shows sections for more on graduate shows.