Abdulrazak Gurnah was awarded the 2021 Nobel Prize in Literature “for his uncompromising and compassionate penetration of the effects of colonialism and the fate of the refugee in the gulf between cultures and continents”.
Gurnah’s literary works and the Swedish Academy’s explanation for the prize has inspired the design process and the creation’s style. The dress reflects the explanation’s second part: the great gulf between cultures and continents. His narrative art is often described as subtill and powerful without being exaggerated. The lines through the dress symbolise the journeys made by
the refugees, and the pearls tell us how many leave their homes but how few safely reach a destination.