Exhibited at: Selvedge Textile Month, Romanian Cultural Institute, London, UK (September 2024)
Talk: In Conversation with Gloria Mazzer, Woven & Beyond (Sunday, September 21, 2024)

Concept
Even the sweetest flowers fade. This is a story of what lingers, in roots, in craft, in memory.

Jasmine Is a Lie is a capsule collection by MA RA MI, marking a new chapter in the ongoing Feel the Earth line, a permanent body of work dedicated to grounding, regeneration, and the invisible threads between craft and memory.

The collection explores dualities: beauty and rot, softness and steel, the sacred and the unstitched. Jasmine, a flower often linked to childhood memories, intimacy, and ritual, becomes a paradox here, both a vessel of memory and a reminder of impermanence. Like jasmine, memory blooms and fades, but roots draw life from what once was, transforming decay into nourishment.

Comprising ten sculptural looks, each handmade with regenerative fabrics and certified ecological textiles, the collection is crafted in collaboration with Romanian artisans through crochet, embroidery, and knit. The garments evoke ritual objects more than fashion, carrying generational knowledge through their tactile, imperfect, and alive presence.

Shot in the stillness of Romanian nature, beneath rain and mist, the collection evokes intimacy and grounding: wool as warmth, memory, and a return to what holds us. A baby lamb cradled gently speaks to fragility, tenderness, and renewal.

Building on Root Rot (first presented at Quoz Arts Fest, Dubai, 2025), which explored roots, displacement, and belonging through a cross-cultural installation, Jasmine Is a Lie transforms those ideas into wearable form. Jasmine, a symbol shared across cultures, becomes thread — woven into garments shaped by contradiction, care, and truth.

Talk
As part of Selvedge Textile Month, Andra Clitan joined Gloria Mazzer  (Woven & Beyond) for a Sunday talk at the Romanian Cultural Institute, London. The conversation expanded on the themes of Jasmine Is a Lie, focusing on the role of regenerative textiles, artisan collaboration, and cultural storytelling in shaping sustainable futures for fashion and craft. The dialogue placed the collection within a wider global conversation, underlining how memory and materiality intertwine across cultures.