MERGING THE ARTS OF HAND EMBROIDERY WITH PAINTING FOR CREATING INTERCHANGEABLE MODULAR FASHION

The study presents the preparation of an experiment to launch a new fashion trend, which can be applied to many women’s clothing items, especially the dress and the abaya, as they are the most widespread clothing items in Arab and Islamic countries. The new trend allows for transforming in design using modules which decorated with embroidery in various forms. The idea was generated by the researcher teaching a group of special needs students, deaf and dumb, with the course "Embroidery on Fashion" in the fall semester 24/2025 in the Fashion Design Program at University of Nizwa. The students showed brilliance in design and embroidery stitching. Among the lessons were: 1) The topic of painting through embroidery' threads, and the topic 2) mixed-media embroidery. The students presented distinguished artworks that can be used in fashion. Also, due to the researcher's supervision of a student project granted by the Ministry of Higher Education in the Sultanate of Oman on the modular fashion, finally motivated by her proposed Strategy on the Mosaic Fashion. The idea of the current study has been oriented to prepare a new fashion trend in one of the types of transforming fashion, which is the modules fashion decorated with painting embroidery, as the proposed trend is characterized by the possibility of substitution among the modules and thus the possibility of appearing in different styles for the same garment, the garment contain some modules that can be attached/detached. The study was based on the actual application of the hand embroidery course students, and on experiments that the researcher applied through generative artificial intelligence, where some modules were decorated with Claude Monet’s embroidered flowers, and the possibility of replacing them -as an example- with other embroidered modules inspired by Piet Mondrian’s geometric shapes. The significance of the study represented in adopting experimentation in the field of fashion, the current experience can be used by students of fashion programs. The study adopts the experimental, developmental and exploratory approach.