What I wish to do in this project is to explore my own heritage and discover who I truly am. I wanted to look at my both parent's side of the family and their heritage but I discovered that throughout the project I have worked more with my mum's side. I feel because I was never truly connected until recently to the culture that my mum was brought it, I was naturally more interested in that. Also, my dad's side of the family is quite small because his parents died when he was young. I have never met my grandparents from my dad's side but I believe that one day our family will be together again. 

I thought it was really interesting how different the two sides of the family are and in culture. Both cultures have such a strong history of religion and art. I would like to show how different yet similar I am to my parents and their heritage. Growing up I joined the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Days Saints when I was 10 with my dad. He got baptized around 20 years ago. The church has also played such an important part in my life and in my identity. 

These are some of the pictures that have inspired me for this project. One thing that I find myself doing is looking for textures and colors that represent my past that would bring back some specific smells like when my grandma used to make pies and the whole house would smell so good, or textures that remind me of specific places I have been before and they remind me of a memory I had linked to that texture or color. 

Like for example, my mum is Molvadian/Russian and my dad is Romanian. Growing up, I would always go visit my grandparents and relatives in Chisinau and the village my mum is from. They have a very specific style of how they design their houses. It's always full of color and textures like you can see in the picture below. 

They used to layer rugs on the walla to insulate the warm air inside during the winter, and during summer it would help with keeping the cold air inside. They used to hand-make these rugs and everything in their house which I think it's so amazing. 

Picture taken in 2006, I am on the far right with my uncle and my grandma's sister and her mother, followed by mu mum with her older brother and daughter. 

The picture was taken ?, my parents and I in our old house in Timisoara, Romania.

"Bianca Saunders is a London born and based Menswear Designer. Saunders most recently graduated with masters from The Royal college of Art in menswear design. Prior to that she completed her BA at Kingston University in Fashion design. Achieving a first place prize for the Sophie Hallette lace competition her graduate collection. 

Saunders work is based around the exploration of surrounding identities, alongside influences from her British-West Indian heritage and what that means in London today.  By looking at authentic research and self-documented archives Saunders pushes to create cultural exchanges through garments sound and film. Bianca Saunders produces a wardrobe that has elements of contemporary tailoring and elevated causal wear using drape techniques. "

Bianca Saunders

"Bianca Saunders, a fledgling menswear designer showing her second collection after graduating from the Royal College of Art. As she explained, much of her work is inspired by the experience of her male friends and contemporaries—Saunders hails from South East London, Brockley by way of Catford—and is interested in teasing via designed interrogation the shackles of masculine stereotype. Specifically she’s interested in testing the stereotypes that enforce the boundaries of black masculinity—in her experience—and which also affect the perception of sexual orientation. She cited PDA, an East London club night that is a free space for nonbinary expression, as further inspiration, but this collection was set in a bedroom: the most private free space of all.

The 10 looks featured a tight edit of treated leather outerwear with slyly delicate flourishes of ruffle and a sleek single-button peak-collar topcoat worn against irregularly meshed knit skirts and underwear, beneath which more substantial underpinnings prevented the transgression of any legally enforceable taboo. A pale-colored tracksuit featured soft undulations of material at the shoulder and leg. Really strong were the boxer shorts and vests inlaid with panels of shirred elastic that were aesthetically pleasing, comfortable (the models attested), and consistent with the designer’s interesting point of focus.

https://www.vogue.com/article/london-fashion-week-menswear-fall-2019-bianca-saunders