The Tribune

By DONITRA DAVIS

INTERIOR designer Elizabeth Clarke makes her mark as she travels the world.

She ventured first to Spain in 2003, where she started her study of architecture, and on to Vancouver and New York. Returning home to the Bahamas eight years ago, she worked with an architecture firm, Plan It Bahamas. There she began to specialise in residential, commercial designs and became an interior designer showcased on HGTV.

As Ms Clarke’s life changed, she moved into the world of art, more specificaly the world of wearable art. In 2012, Ms Clarke, 41, was chosen to take part in the Islands of the World Fashion Showcase in a tribute to Jackson Burnside, where she took on the concept of using urban designs infused with indigenous materials in creations for the human body. She and her team, not expecting an award, won the fashion showcase.

The search for and collection of indigenous elements such as pines, straws, wiring, palm seeds, high-pressured metals, coconut husk and almond seeds have taken Ms Clarke outdoors, not just to gather the pieces but to understand how they work alone and with others. Ms Clarke, who describes herself as a mass manipulator of art, is the founder and owner of EPC Designs and Hello Lovely Inc, where she has led her team in more than 10 projects.

The main focus of EPC Designs, Ms Clarke’s first company, was residential and commercial whereas she began to broaden her horizons and decided to make Hello Lovely Inc concentrate more on home decor. Hello Lovely’s name is derived from a deep connection to a late friend who, she says, shaped and moulded her to become the artist and woman she is today.

The dream, she says, for Hello Lovely is to become known internationally, combining fashion with the arts of home decor and establishing boutiques around the world. The grand opening of Hello Lovely in Nassau will take place in the fall.

Hello Lovely products and design capabilities were used in assisting Monty Knowles, the body painting artist, earlier this month at the unveiling of the Junkanoo Nymph. Ms Clarke and her team were responsible for the design, materials and sewing of the Nymph costume, from the formal brassiere, casual skirt and pants to the tiara headpiece, crown and casual headpiece on which Ms Clarke, Rochelle Wilson Knowles and Troy Q Nixon worked.

The rest of her team comprises Dorothy “Dot” Miller, Bolera Glinton, Cheryl and Senovia Mulling, Victor “Juju” Johnson, Tara Miller, Valentino Lloyd, Terrel W Carey and David Rose, covering all aspects including hair styling, video production and photography.

The costume for the Junkanoo Nymph will be showcased in New York this summer.