Caroline Z Hurley

08.28.18

Last week, IK made some time to sneak out of our studio and head to Caroline Z Hurley's Greenpoint Showroom.

While hanging in the beautiful space the two talked all things art, production, business, and growth. Ilana was even able to snap some awesome pictures of Caroline modeling AW18 goodies in front of her paintings and textiles. If you aren't familiar with Caroline Z Hurley, you might recognize her from past IK photoshoots. Lucky for us, she's a gorgeous model, and a very talented friend to have!

How did you get started creating your beautiful textiles?

It happened by chance really! I was making things in my painting studio and the block-prints developed their own corner in my studio. I started making throws for the beach for myself and my friends and things sort of took off from there. Some shops became interested and I realized I had a market. I was working as a preschool teacher at the time and I loved it. It was the perfect bridge job for me. After a year of working as a teacher and also building my biz I had to quit because I couldn't fit everything into the day. It was a really fun time when I was teaching and building the business.

Tell us about your facility in New Bedford, MA and how that came about?

I was searching for a factory to create block-printed fabric and I couldn't find anything that felt right. I wanted the ink to sit on top of the linen, like my paintings. So I created my own factory. I was introduced to my artisans by my first employee, who is now my fiancé :). I guess I like to keep my employees close! My other two employees have also been with me for a long time and I hope to keep them for forever too! Anyway, I trained these Guatemalan artisans how to create all of the block-printed pieces and they are still the producers of all CZH block-printed fabrics. They are fantastic.

It's amazing that despite running an amazing business, you still manage to find time for your personal art practice. I would love to hear about that and how you manage to find that kind of balance.

Once I was able to afford more help I decided after a long meditation one day that I needed a space just for my art practice. It was this wild feeling and directly after meditating I went on craigslist and found a listing, called the owner, saw the space and the next day signed a lease. It was as if the whole universe needed me to get a painting studio again. It all happened so fast. So I took it as a sign to make a practice of using the space every week, at least once a week. So it's in our CZH calendar-everyone on the team knows there are certain days I'll be in the painting studio and it all works out really well!