In the rupture between worlds, something new begins.

Metamorphia explores identity, cultural displacement and transformation through a butterfly’s life cycle—egg, caterpillar, chrysalis, rupture, and emergence. It reflects the migrant experience of existing between worlds—untethered from one culture yet never fully rooted in another. Often perceived as displacement, this in-between space is reframed here as one of possibility and self-authorship.

Migration fractures familiar structures, resulting in ambiguity and rupture; yet within this rupture lies potential for creative redefinition, resistance, and growth. Drawing on Homi Bhabha’s theory of “Third Space,” Metamorphia envisions a generative realm where migrants shape-shift beyond fixed cultural categories, creating hybrid identities.

Inspired by the avant-garde silhouettes and sculptural storytelling of Iris van Herpen and Issey Miyake, the collection reimagines garments as narrative vessels. Reversible pieces feature uncanny, white-toned exteriors symbolising adaptation and the desire to belong. Their distorted shapes evoke quiet resistance—deliberately foreign, sitting askew like migrants within dominant culture.

Beneath, hidden prints featuring distorted core memories gradually emerge, rendered in purple, pink, and blue. These interiors represent an unfolding identity reclaiming space in the world. Rather than mourning a loss of origin, Metamorphia reframes displacement as a source of power. In the liminal third space, the self is not lost, it is redefined