THREADS OF OSMOSIS 

Textile as Migration, Archive, and Cultural Exchange

ABSTRACT 

Threads of Osmosis is the second chapter in LABRUM London’s three-part exploration of how culture moves, transforms, and endures. Following SS26: Cultural Osmosis, which examined sound as the first carrier of culture, AW26 turns to textile; the physical archive of migration, trade, encounter, and survival. 

This research paper investigates textile as evidence of cultural exchange across West Africa, India, China, the Caribbean, and Europe, with particular attention to Britain. Drawing upon textile history, postcolonial theory, material culture studies, and diaspora scholarship, it argues that cloth is not a static artefact of tradition but a dynamic medium of osmosis. Fibres travel along trade routes; patterns absorb influence; techniques hybridise under pressure. 

Textile is therefore not merely aesthetic. It is political. It is economic. It is migratory. It is human. 

In Threads of Osmosis, LABRUM reinterprets heritage textiles through the discipline of British tailoring, producing garments that embody hybridity rather than purity. This collection positions textile as a living record of global exchange and affirms hybridity as cultural strength. 

INTRODUCTION: From Sound to Cloth 

In SS26, Cultural Osmosis, LABRUM investigated sound as the first carrier of culture, oral traditions, rhythm, and memory moving freely across borders long before passports or nation states existed. Sound travels through air; it is immaterial, adaptive, and communal. 

In AW26, Threads of Osmosis, the inquiry turns to textile, the second and most physical archive of human movement. If sound moves through atmosphere, cloth moves through hands. 

Anthropologist Arjun Appadurai reminds us that “things in motion illuminate their human and social context” (Appadurai, 1986). Textiles, as things in motion, illuminate trade, migration, colonial encounter, technological innovation, and resistance. They map the world differently from political borders; they map it through fibre routes, dye exchanges, and loom technologies. 

Textiles have always travelled. They have rarely belonged exclusively to one place. This essay examines how textile functions as cultural osmosis, absorbing, adapting, and transforming through exchange, and how LABRUM’s AW26 collection reinterprets these movements through contemporary design practice. 

Theoretical Framework: Osmosis and Cultural Hybridity 

The concept of osmosis describes the movement of molecules through a semi-permeable membrane from areas of high concentration to low concentration. In cultural terms, osmosis describes the diffusion of ideas, aesthetics, techniques, and values across porous borders. 

Homi K. Bhabha’s concept of the “Third Space” provides a critical framework for understanding this exchange. Bhabha argues that cultural identity is formed in the interstitial space between cultures, where hybrid forms emerge (Bhabha, 1994). Textile embodies this Third Space. 

No fabric exists in isolation. Cotton from India becomes wax print in West Africa. Chinese silk shapes European aristocratic fashion. British industrial wool reshapes global production systems. Cloth is never singular in origin; it is plural in becoming. 

Anthropologist Daniel Miller notes that material culture “is not just a passive object but an active participant in social life” (Miller, 2005). Textile does not simply reflect migration; it performs it. It travels with bodies, protects them, signals belonging, negotiates identity. 

Hybridity is therefore not dilution. It is production. It is creation through contact. 

WEST AFRICAN WEAVING: Indigenous Systems of Knowledge 

West African textile traditions predate colonial trade routes and operate within highly sophisticated systems of symbolism, mathematics, and social structure. 

Kente cloth, originating among the Akan peoples of present-day Ghana, functions as both ceremonial garment and encoded text. Its patterns communicate proverbs, social hierarchy, and moral philosophy (Ross, 2008). As art historian Doran Ross notes, “Kente is a visual language” (Ross, 2008). 

Strip weaving across Mali, Nigeria, and Burkina Faso demonstrates advanced loom technologies that enabled narrow-band weaving later assembled into larger garments. These systems reflect modular design thinking centuries before industrial manufacturing. 

Indigo dyeing, particularly in Mali and Nigeria, reveals trans-Saharan trade networks linking West Africa to North Africa and the Middle East. The chemistry of indigo fermentation was transmitted across cultures, illustrating early forms of scientific osmosis. 

These textiles were not isolated traditions. They were already hybrid systems, absorbing Islamic geometric influence, trans- Saharan trade materials, and later, European imports.

INDIA AND THE GLOBAL COTTON REVOLUTION 

Before European industrialisation, Indian textiles dominated global markets. Chintz, printed and painted cotton was exported to Europe, Africa, and Southeast Asia from the 16th century onward (Riello, 2013). Giorgio Riello argues that “cotton was the first global commodity” (Riello, 2013). Its lightweight adaptability allowed it to travel across climates and cultures. 

Indian madras, originally from Chennai (formerly Madras), travelled to the Caribbean through colonial trade networks. There, it became central to Caribbean identity and Creole dress traditions. What began as Indian textile became Caribbean heritage. 

CHINA AND SILK ROUTES 

Silk, developed in ancient China, became one of history’s most influential textile exports. 

The Silk Road - a network rather than a single route - facilitated exchange between East Asia, Central Asia, the Middle East, and Europe (Hansen, 2012). Silk carried not only luxury but technology, religion, and diplomacy. 

Valerie Hansen notes that the Silk Road’s significance lies less in mass trade and more in cultural transmission (Hansen, 2012). Silk’s softness and sheen altered European court dress, influencing Renaissance fashion and aristocratic display. Embroidery techniques, sericulture knowledge, and weaving technologies migrated westward. In return, China absorbed motifs and dyes from Central Asia and Persia. Silk demonstrates osmosis in both directions. 

EUROPE, INDUSTRIALISATION, AND BRITISH WOOL 

Britain’s textile industry became central to the Industrial Revolution. Mechanised spinning and weaving increased production speed exponentially. Eric Hobsbawm describes industrialisation as a radical restructuring of economic and social life (Hobsbawm, 1962). Textile mills transformed labour relations, urban geography, and global trade networks.

Britsh wool suiting and Savile Row tailoring developed systems of precision, discipline, and structure. Tailoring introduced architectural principles to clothing: canvassing, padding, shoulder structure, proportion. Yet British industry depended on global raw materials; cotton from India and the American South, dyes from colonies, markets in Africa. Thus, British tailoring is also a product of global osmosis. 

WAX PRINT: Colonial Paradox and African Reclaiming 

One of the most striking examples of textile osmosis is Dutch wax print, often perceived as “African.” 

Originally inspired by Indonesian batik, industrialised in the Netherlands, and marketed in West Africa in the 19th century, wax print became deeply integrated into West African cultural identity (Sylvanus, 2016). Elisha Renne and Nina Sylvanus argue that wax print’s African-ness is not origin-based but adoption-based (Sylvanus, 2016). Communities inscribed new meanings onto imported cloth. This complicates ideas of authenticity. Wax print demonstrates that cultural ownership can be rooted in use, not origin. 

DIASPORA AND THE FABRIC OF IDENTITY

Textiles travel with migrants. They become portable memory. 

Paul Gilroy’s The Black Atlantic positions diaspora as a space of cultural exchange rather than fixed identity (Gilroy, 1993). Cloth operates within this Atlantic circulation. Madras in the Caribbean, wax print in London markets, silk in European couture, all signify diasporic adaptation. Clothing negotiates visibility and belonging. It signals where one comes from and where one is going. 

TEXTILE AS POLITICAL ARCHIVE

Textile encodes power. Colonial trade imposed economic hierarchies; industrialisation displaced artisans; fashion systems extracted labour from the Global South. 

Appadurai’s notion of “global cultural flows” reminds us that exchange is rarely equal (Appadurai, 1996). Textile osmosis often occurred under coercion. Yet communities resisted through adaptation. They altered patterns, renamed prints, embedded proverbs into cloth. Textile became site of survival.

THREADS OF OSMOSIS: Design Translation 

In AW26, LABRUM does not nostalgically reproduce heritage textiles. Instead, it investigates their migration pathways. 

West African weaving logic informs panel construction. Indian cotton lightness influences fabric weight. Chinese silk techniques inspire surface finish. British tailoring disciplines silhouette. Structured jackets meet fluid textiles. Military precision meets migratory softness. 

Each garment becomes a dialogue: 

• Origin and destination 

• Tradition and evolution 

• Discipline and movement 

Hybridity is not aesthetic trend. It is historical truth. 

REJECTING PURITY

The idea of cultural purity is historically inaccurate. Textile history proves entanglement. Bhabha writes that “all forms of culture are continually in a process of hybridity” (Bhabha, 1994). 

CONCLUSION 

Textiles are living archives. They record migration without passports. They carry climate, trade, colonisation, adaptation, and imagination. From West African strip weaving to Indian cotton, Chinese silk to British wool, cloth has always travelled. It has always absorbed. It has always transformed. 

Threads of Osmosis positions fashion not as seasonal consumption but as historical continuation. Each LABRUM garment becomes evidence of exchange. 

The world has never been pure. It has always been woven. 

REFERENCES 

Appadurai, A. (1986). The Social Life of Things. Cambridge University Press. 

Appadurai, A. (1996). Modernity at Large. University of Minnesota Press. 

Bhabha, H. K. (1994). The Location of Culture. Routledge. 

Gilroy, P. (1993). The Black Atlantic. Verso. 

Hansen, V. (2012). The Silk Road: A New History. Oxford University Press. 

Hobsbawm, E. (1962). The Age of Revolution. Weidenfeld & Nicolson. 

Miller, D. (2005). Materiality. Duke University Press. 

Riello, G. (2013). Cotton: The Fabric that Made the Modern World. Cambridge University Press. 

Ross, D. (2008). Wrapped in Pride: Ghanaian Kente and African American Identity. UCLA Fowler Museum. 

Sylvanus, N. (2016). Patterns in Circulation: Cloth, Gender, and Materiality in West Africa. University of Chicago Press.