Design historian, researcher, crafter, designer
Design Portfolio
About
Narin weaving at Marshfield School of Weaving on a counterblanace loom with handspun weft. 2023
About
Currently a design historian and researcher in London, Narin’s interests span across time periods, from the nineteenth century to today following how craft knowledge is preserved through and by the people who practice it.
In all of their studies, they incorporate the craft skills they have learned first-hand as an active methodology while maintaining a decolonial approach. Through the democratization of knowledge, they hope to reverse the colonialist structures and systems that endanger craft knowledge.
Originally from San Francisco, CA, and previously living in Missoula, MT, Narin was a freelance graphic designer, working across different sectors and consultancies in print and digital to bring brands identities, events, and media compaigns to life. Their design portfolio is available here.
Research
Narin’s previous study was at the History of Design MA Programme at the Royal College of Art and V&A, where they were awarded the 2026 Clive Wainwright Memorial Prize and a distinction for their dissertation ‘Home Sewing in the Digital Age: New players, gender expression and online community’. In it, they examine how paper sewing patterns have evolved since the 2000s by examining the relationship between nonbinary and trans sewists and traditionally gendered garments. They also delve into the digital revolution in home-sewing, its effects on indie pattern designers relationships with their customer base, and how social media plays an active role in today’s home sewing landscape.
At their cohort-led symposium, ‘Pencil’s Only’, they collaborated with Sally Holditch on their talk, ‘Reddit is Ephemera’, disussing how Reddit’s role has evolved in the modern day to take the place of traditional printed ephemera and how it can be used in modern craft research. They also designed the programme.
Previously, they examined a sample of nineteenth century jacquard weaving, tracing the sample back through the V&A in London to Warner Textile Archives in Braintree to uncover the emerging career of ‘designer’ and its separation from ‘weaver’ in the rapid industriazliation of the weaving economy of East London.