Can a motif change form while retaining its meaning?
Patterns once found on shapans, carpets, felt, jewellery and everyday objects can reappear today on a jacket, vest or pair of trousers. Bringing cultural motifs into contemporary fashion involves more than placing an old pattern on a new product. A meaningful transformation starts with understanding, followed by reinterpretation.
What is a cultural motif?
A motif is part of a visual language rather than a random decorative addition. Traditional Kazakh ornament draws on nature, animals, plants, geometry and the sky. The National Museum of Kazakhstan describes four broad groups:
- Animal-inspired motifs: stylised forms derived from animals.
- Botanical motifs: forms drawn from flowers, tulips, leaves, trees and branches.
- Geometric motifs: triangles, squares, polygons, ovals and zigzags.
- Cosmological motifs: signs associated with the sun, stars and the earth.
This variety shows why a pattern should be considered within its cultural setting. Each carries a trace of the visual memory from which it emerged.
Copying and reinterpreting
Adding a traditional motif to a contemporary object can be straightforward. The more demanding work is answering the questions behind it: Where did it originate? On which objects did it appear? What were its original proportions and colours? Why does it belong on this particular garment?
When research leads the process, a motif can be documented, analysed and redrawn. It can be tested through embroidery techniques and different fabrics before deciding what to preserve and what to reinterpret on a contemporary silhouette. Cultural heritage then becomes part of the design’s foundation.
Why are traditional motifs visible again?
Cultural identity and local design languages have renewed relevance in contemporary fashion. Studies of Kazakh fashion describe traditional ornament, embroidery, colour and fabric meeting modern forms, allowing cultural identity to be expressed in new ways.
The same visual vocabulary also appears across contemporary design and personal expression. A motif may remain recognisable while its context changes. A textile detail can become a large composition on a jacket’s back. A narrow border may become a trouser detail. Jewellery’s geometric language can inspire a vest’s embroidery.
The past acquires a new context without disappearing.
What does a modern wardrobe need?
Historical clothes were designed for their own living conditions. Today, someone may want to wear the same jacket to work, around the city, while travelling and to dinner.
Contemporary cultural design therefore addresses function alongside aesthetics. A shapan may become shorter; its fabric lighter; its embroidery more restrained. Pockets, lining and closures may be reconsidered. Thoughtful adaptation allows the historical reference to remain useful in everyday life.
Balancing heritage and everyday wear
A culturally inspired garment should feel connected to daily life. Achieving this does not simply mean removing motifs. It means finding balance: a strong pattern on a clean silhouette, dense embroidery within a neutral palette, or a historical form with adjusted volume and length.
A piece can make its origins visible while feeling natural in the present.
From research to a wearable piece
At ELTERES, we think of this process in four stages:
- Research: study the historical source, object or textile.
- Understand: examine the motif’s form, rhythm, placement and cultural context.
- Reinterpret: explore contemporary scale, colour and material.
- Bring into use: create a finished piece intended to be worn.
The final stage matters because cultural heritage’s future is shaped in everyday life as well as in museums.
A design language between past and present
A contemporary jacket can carry a centuries-old motif. Modern trousers can hold traces of cultural memory. A vest can belong to city life while maintaining a connection with its roots.
ELTERES seeks to give motifs a new life in today’s wardrobe while respecting their meaning. One way to keep heritage alive is to use it again.
ELTERES — Unbroken Culture.
