Hannah Refaat

Embroidery

About

Hannah is an award-winning multidisciplinary textile designer whose work bridges the traditional and the contemporary. Specialising in both hand and machine embroidery, her creations are deeply inspired by her Egyptian heritage and the rich cultural landscape of the Middle East. Having spent months immersed in this environment, Hannah draws upon her experiences to merge bold, modern aesthetics with traditional Middle Eastern techniques.

Hannah received her MA from the world-renowned Royal College of Art, where she studied Mixed-media and specialised in embroidery. She has worked on one-off freelance projects in film, fashion and advertising. Hannah also teaches on the textile’s courses at LCF, Manchester Metropolitan, a Loughborough, where she studied her BA. She is based at Cockpit Arts, in London after winning the Radcliffe Craft Development award in 2018. This is where she developed her eclectic range of embroidered products, on a commission and made-to-order basis.

“Hannah approaches her craft like a painter, with thread as her paint and fabric as her canvas, working intuitively to create layered, evocative pieces.”

Hannah Refaat

Process

Hannah has featured in Love Embroidery, Selvedge, Town & Country and Dancing With Her magazines, The Times, Top Drawer new talent edit. She has exhibited at the Knitting and Stitching show, Most Curious wedding fair, Top Drawer, Two More Years, Tarkett for Clerkenwell Design week 2022, Oxo Tower for London Craft Week 2022 and Buckle Street Studios, by Locke hotels for London Craft Week 2023, The Department Store 2025, and The Japanese Embassy in London, 2025.

She has won awards from The Worshipful Company of Needlemakers, The Eaton Fund, Craft Council and the Radcliffe Trust.

Services

  • workshops
  • commissions

Awards

  • Winner of Radcliffe Emerging Maker Award 2018

What's on

Maker stories