“Silk Routes: A Thread of Passage” is a digital storytelling and research-led installation project developed through the Portals programme at the Victoria and Albert Museum - South Kensington, London.

The work explores how cloth can carry memory across movement, trade, cultural translation, and time. Centred around a 17th-century nightgown from the V&A collection made from Chinese silk, inspired by Japanese design, and mislabelled as “Indian”, the project examines the layered histories embedded within objects and the often-overlooked labour, craft, and cultural exchange behind them.

Through digital worldbuilding, textile exploration, poetry, and audience participation, the project traces the garment’s symbolic and physical journey across geographies and histories