My work for ARTHROPODA by RAEANA sits at the intersection of fashion, film and fine art and is a reflection on the depths of emotion. It explores what it means to move through pain, beauty, grief and resilience. I am interested in the moments that undo us and the ways we begin again. Strength, vulnerability and armor are recurring themes. I create to process, to rebuild and to imagine new forms of becoming.

ARTHROPODA is an expanding world and conceptual ecosystem. It is inspired by my deep admiration for arthropods, their resilience, their structure and their ability to adapt and evolve across time. I could study them for the rest of my life and still be learning. Their anatomy, their exoskeletons, their color and their design offer a lens through which I explore transformation. Through their gaze I tell stories about metamorphosis, collapse and emergence, the death of one self and the birth of another.

Color plays an essential role in how I build meaning. I often work with green, red and yellow, which represent strength, danger and illumination. Chartreuse green appears throughout my pieces as a signature color, symbolizing vitality, rupture and the electric charge of change. These choices are intuitive and intentional. They function as both signal and story.

My use of a scallop motif across garments in the ARTHROPODA series is another signal to story, and a brand signature. The shape is drawn from the anatomy of caterpillars I have studied closely. I was struck by the sculptural elegance of their segmented bodies and the unexpected beauty in their texture and rhythm. The scallop detail nods to this early stage of transformation, referencing growth, fragility and the preparation for change.

Each piece, whether a garment, a film or a performance, is part of a universe I am building. A universe that holds the tension between protection and exposure, stillness and motion, decay and bloom.

I am drawn to what is in flux, to the space between collapse and bloom. ARTHROPODA is not a fixed concept. It is a portal. A process. A world I am building with others who see art as transformation.