Introduction
About Clarissa
Clarissa Hulse designs beautiful and luxurious homeware from her studio in North London, with an emphasis on botanical imagery and bold colour. Clarissa’s designs are based on her nature photography, which is just as likely to originate from a tropical rainforest as it is to feature leaves from Highbury Fields- a stone’s throw from her studio.
Clarissa was born in Prague where her parents were living due to her father working there as a diplomat. The family moved around a lot and lived in Bangkok, Brussels, Athens, and Vienna with summers spent in her mother’s native Greece. She attributes her love of textiles and interiors to her nomadic childhood as every time they moved, her mother would make the new house feel homely with beautiful textiles and handicrafts from local markets. She was also a plant enthusiast and would fill the house with botanical finds.
Clarissa studied textiles at Brighton Art College in the 90s and after graduating, moved to London to work as a freelance textile designer. She was always passionate about screen printing and set up a studio making hand-printed scarves which were an instant hit. Orders came flooding in from prestigious stores from around the world including Liberty in London, New York department stores such as Barney’s & Nieman Marcus and Joyce boutique in Hong Kong. Gradually the collection grew into a range of clothing, kimonos, and loungewear. Whilst she loved designing scarves she became frustrated by the fleeting nature of fashion and wanted to focus more on her botanical style. In 2002 she launched her first homewares collection which was stocked by Heals and the Conran Shop.
Since then, Clarissa has developed successful ranges of award-winning fabric and wallpaper collections with Harlequin, as well as cushions and bed linen sold in the likes of John Lewis and M&S. Her range has now grown to include gift items, kitchenware, murals and still her beloved scarves, to continue bringing joy and colour into people’s homes.