“The Lost Thread” is an ongoing reflection on what silently disappears when human hands stop making.
Inspired by the traditional Bulgarian costumes once entirely woven, dyed, embroidered, and assembled by hand, this body of work explores textile not as a decorative medium, but as a living archive of memory, identity, and belonging. Every stitch carries the rhythm of time; every thread preserves gestures that have travelled through generations of women, connecting bodies, landscapes, and invisible histories.
Growing up, I was fascinated by two photographs of my grandmother. In one, she wore the richly embroidered costume of her mountain village—a second skin patiently created through countless hours of spinning, weaving, sewing, and embroidery. In the other, she had become part of a new industrial world, dressed in factory-made fabric, embracing the promise of modernity. Between these two images lies a silent rupture: a thread that was not simply abandoned, but forgotten.
Through embroidery, textile, drawing, and installation, I seek to reconnect with this invisible thread—not out of nostalgia, but as an act of remembrance and transformation. Hand sewing becomes a contemplative practice, where repetitive gestures slow time and reveal the intimate relationship between making and being. The fabric becomes a place where memory can be inhabited, repaired, and rewritten.
The garment is the first space we inhabit
For me, the thread is both material and metaphor. It links the individual to the collective, the body to the earth, the past to the future. It reminds us that clothing was once an extension of the self rather than a disposable commodity, and that every handmade object contains the time, care, and presence of the person who created it.
“The Lost Thread” invites us to reconsider what we have gained through technological progress—and what we may have quietly left behind. In searching for this lost thread, I am ultimately searching for a more conscious way of inhabiting the world, where making with our hands becomes once again an act of care, resilience, and connection.