“I dream in turquoise.”

 

Tulu Textiles is the work of Elizabeth Hewitt, who lives and works in Istanbul, Turkey.

 

Elizabeth is a collector of people and a natural born storyteller, and her fabrics are visual versions of stories told over one or ten cocktails. Each fabric is named after a real person -a friend, an inspiration- in Elizabeth’s wide and international circle, each fabric its own character. 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 Textiles is known for its originality, its depth, its foundation in antique textiles, and its fresh and surprising palette and sensibility. 

 

Tulu’s fabrics are hand printed by master printers in Rajasthan, and handwoven 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 and weaving she saw there sparked the idea to travel and source unique textiles. From Ecuador, Elizabeth turned towards Pakistan, India, Central Asia, 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 Textiles. 

 

A collector and a designer, Elizabeth is constantly inspired by sights, sounds, colors, patterns, people, flea markets, crusty textiles…

 

Follow Tulu Textiles on Instagram

 

Elizabeth is one of the owners of TAMAM, the boutique in the East Village in New York City.

 

 

AD.DAR

 

Beyond textiles, Elizabeth is involved in running AD.DAR, a nonprofit organization and community center for Syrian and Palestinian-Syrian refugees in Istanbul. You can read more about Ad.dar here, and follow the center on Instagram.