“I dream in turquoise.”
Tulu is the work of Elizabeth Hewitt, who lives and works in Istanbul, Turkey.
Tulu’s unique combination of scale, pattern, and color make the designs bold and beautiful or sophisticated and unassuming, as if they are telling us their story in their own language. With nods to antique textiles from many place and techniques, Elizabeth re-interprets constantly, moving, for example, from an original antique woven textile to a blockprinted version that is entirely her own. Tulu is known for its originality, its foundation in antique textiles, its dedication to hand-work, and its fresh and surprising palette and sensibility.
Tulu’s fabrics are hand printed by master printers in Rajasthan, and handmade by ikat masters in eastern Uzbekistan.
Raised in the Philadelphia area and trained at the Philadelphia College of Textiles & Science, Elizabeth has always deviated from the pack to create surprising and unique colors and patterns, designing with an artist’s eye and a traveller’s mind. Travelling to Ecuador after graduation, the traditional textiles she found there led her down the path of an antique textile “picker” and dealer. Sourcing ethnographic material for collectors and galleries, Elizabeth turned towards Morocco, Pakistan, India, Central Asia, Syria, and Turkey.
Elizabeth’s travels to Uzbekistan also led her to develop a business designing and producing high-quality contemporary ikats for notable interiors and fashion clients, including Oscar de la Renta. One of the first people to bring ikats to Western designers, Elizabeth continues to design and produce ikats for Tulu, her ikat company Malika, and others.
A collector and a designer, Elizabeth is constantly inspired by the extraordinary and the very ordinary. Jasmine blooming, junk shops, bazaars, people, patterns, poetry. Tulips in The City, textile fragments, turquoise ceramics, enameled copper, books, and black and white photographs.
Follow Tulu Textiles on Instagram: @tulutextiles
Follow Malika ikats on Instagram @malika_ikats_
