At once undone, done, and to be done again - this is how Estevan Bourquard describes the shifting thread that connects us to our heritage. Inspired by the work of Colombian textile artist Olga de Amaral, the Swiss-born, Swiss-Colombian Menswear Fashion Design student at Central Saint Martins explores the fragile space between cultural erasure and reconnection.

His project is woven, quite literally, from memory. The chosen fabric - a sheet once stapled to the walls of the Musée Cantonal des Beaux-Arts in Lausanne - carries within it the colonial history of European museums and the silent traces of its former life. The visible staple marks, far from being concealed, are treated as beloved scars, highlighted through the garment’s construction technique. Nothing is hidden; everything is reclaimed as visible memory.

The black colour of the cloth - a symbol of both ecclesiastical Spain during the colonial era and Western modernity (as discussed by David Batchelor in Chromophobia) - is slowly consumed by gold. This gold, central to the material cultures of pre-Columbian Colombia, becomes an act of reclamation - a luminous gesture of reconnection to an erased yet radiant heritage.

Through the practice of weaving, the designer evokes a dreamed, pre-colonial Colombia, rooted in ancestral craftsmanship and enduring lineage. Each thread becomes a reimagined memory; each seam, an act of resistance.

Design, set design and stylist - @estevanbourquard (part of the collective @suisse.workshop.studio)

Photography and editing - @alixgolay

Creative direction - Estevan Bourquard & Alix Golay

Makeup - @mahe_makeup_arts

Talent - @zzzechro and @elie.autins