Stitched in silence: The tension lies elsewhere

Fashion has long been a repository of beauty, identity, and self-expression, but beneath its surface lies a complex web of power, control and violence. This exhibition explores the ways in which garments shape and discipline bodies, particularly those of women, and how fashion is deeply entangled with histories of oppression, labor exploitation, and social policing.

Dressing and undressing are among the most intimate yet most regulated acts of daily life, is so routine that we often forget its significance. Clothing does more than cover; it encodes identities, enforces boundaries, and reveals the invisible forces that shape us, they are also  constraints and declarations. What we wear is shaped by histories of inequity of gender and class—forces that dictate not only fashion but also who is seen, who is controlled, and who remains invisible. “Stitched in Silence” unravels these tensions, exploring how garments discipline, expose, and regulate bodies.  

Through large-scale tulle installations and charcoal drawings, this exhibition examines the paradox of fashion: a system that both adorns and constrains, protects and polices. The translucent fragility of tulle embodies the interplay between concealment and exposure, softness and restriction. Meanwhile, the drawings serve as a visual diary, capturing moments of vulnerability and reflection on the power dynamics embedded in fabric.  

Fashion beyond shape and fabric; it is a language of control, an archive of labor, and a mechanism of visibility and erasure. The question this exhibition suggests lies not in the nude body, but in the structures that dictate how we must cover, reveal, and conform.  

By engaging with material, scale, and gesture, “Stitched in Silence” invites us to reconsider the politics of clothing. Who do we become when we dress? And what do we shed—beyond fabric—when we undress?