Toujan Khattab

Sunbird

For my graduation project my focus was the exploration of the traditions of Palestinian dress. This collection was greatly influenced by my personal story and that of my family. I set out on a journey to examine my roots in the photo albums forgotten on the back shelves of the wardrobes in my grandfather’s house. The photos I discovered there have become the main source of inspiration behind this collection, which respects the traditional Palestinian garment while maintaining the freedom that challenges accepted conventions, thus offering modernized alternatives to traditional wear. While most of the photos I have found portray a range of male attire, I found exquisite documentation of women’s attire with the traditional hand-crafted embroidery, rarely seen in photos. Thus, I chose to combine cuts from the male attire with hand-embroidery and weaving techniques. This contemporary collection expresses an original statement, in which I design Palestinian clothing for both women and men. Through blurring, disassembly and reassembly I re-examine the gender division, combine the old and new, and interchange casual and occasion wear. Traditionally, in every Palestinian region there is a heritage of unique embroidery patterns specific for that area. Here, I chose to mix embroidery techniques from different region as well as, give expression to the imagery of birds, specifically the "hummingbird" bird, which was declared in 2005 as the national bird of modern Palestine today, also called the "Sun Bird."