In the contemporary context of digital mediation, paper is gradually retreating from its central role in social, cultural, and everyday communication. Traditionally, paper has served not only as a medium for recording information, but also as a material witness to emotion, memory, and social identity. From educational certificates and love letters to receipts, genealogies, and official documents, the physical presence of paper once defined who we were and how we were recorded. As paper documents are increasingly replaced by digital formats, the very foundations of authenticity, authority, and memory are being reshaped. This shift is not merely a change of medium, but a transformation in the underlying cognitive paradigm.

However, the significance of paper has not disappeared. On the contrary, it has been reactivated in the fields of art, design, and emotional expression as a medium rich in tactility and symbolic resonance. For me, this reactivation originates from my upbringing in Anhui, China—a region known for its handmade Xuan paper. Having grown up with paper, it became not only a medium for emotional expression and family interaction, but also a material entry point into my understanding of identity. When I moved from China to the UK, navigating cultural migration and reconfiguring my learning path, I began to reconsider: could paper serve as an embodied medium, interwoven with garment structure and digital technology, to participate in the redefinition of identity?

This research takes design practice as its pathway, proposing a system of identity expression centered on wearable narrative by integrating paper, garment structure, and augmented reality technologies. The project is grounded in an autoethnographic approach, combining interviews, material prototyping, and critical design strategies to explore how identity can shift from institutional paper-based structures toward embodied and interactive modes of expression. The thesis introduces the concept of the Paper Persona to reflect on how paper disciplines the way we are defined and read; and engages with concepts such as performative identity, cultural becoming, and affective communities to frame identity as a practice of negotiation, assemblage, and regeneration.

Through six wearable narrative projects—Duality of Self Book, Drifting Diary, Private Letter, Unfinished Manuscript, Encyclopedia Book, and Virtual Echo—this study develops a co-authored identity system at the intersection of paper, garment, and media. Just as paper has absorbed the traces of my personal growth, this research aims to provide a material space where others can also write, wear, and redefine themselves. Identity is no longer a label, but a dynamic process—interactively constructed, visibly and tangibly experienced.

It is important to note that this project comprises six wearable narrative garments. Among them, Duality of Self Book and Virtual Echo have completed their core design and prototyping stages and have undergone small-scale testing and initial exhibition. The remaining works are still in development, including structural proposals, material experiments, and conceptual refinements, and are scheduled for gradual completion in the coming months. As such, this thesis does not focus solely on completed outcomes, but emphasizes the design process itself as a mode of thinking and critical expression.