Two sisters — a creative director and an artist — have launched a new studio, bringing painterly abstraction into the tactile realm, with handwoven rugs that honour craft, place, and process.
In an era of accelerated production, Coperari arrives with a slower proposition. Founded by Creative Director Nichola Clark in creative collaboration with her sister, New Zealand–based artist Jodi Clark, the studio is grounded in the belief that meaningful objects are shaped as much by process as by outcome.
The brand’s debut centres on hand-crafted textiles and garments produced by artisan communities in Mexico and India — a model that privileges material integrity, cultural respect, and small-scale making over volume. What distinguishes Coperari is the translation of fine art into functional form.
At the heart of the studio’s visual language is Jodi Clark’s abstract painting practice. Known for her bold use of colour, layered texture, and cross-cultural symbolic references, Clark approaches composition intuitively, allowing material exploration to guide the work. Through close collaboration with skilled makers, these painterly qualities are carefully interpreted into textile form — a process that preserves the emotional resonance of the original artworks while allowing them to evolve into tactile, lived objects.
This dialogue is especially compelling in Coperari’s handwoven and hand-tufted rugs. Crafted from Oaxacan wool using regionally specific techniques, the pieces carry a quiet material richness — their depth of colour and subtle irregularities speaking to the human hand behind each stage of production. Hand-tufted designs produced in Rajasthan extend this language, balancing graphic clarity with a softened, textural finish suited to contemporary interiors.
The rugs are not statement pieces in the conventional sense. Rather, they function with a nuanced confidence — anchoring a room through tone, composition, and material honesty.
This thinking continues through Coperari’s lifestyle offerings, which include hand silk-screened pyjamas, kaftans, sarongs, and kimono jackets produced in India using traditional printing methods. Designed to move fluidly between home, travel, and daily wear, the garments share the same emphasis on longevity, comfort, and design intelligence.
Sustainability and ethical production sit at the centre of the studio’s approach. Natural fibres are prioritised, partnerships are built for the long term, and the pace of release remains deliberately measured. It is a framework shaped by Nichola Clark’s years living and working between New York and Oaxaca, where deep immersion in regional craft traditions helped form the foundation of the brand.
Coperari’s launch signal’s the beginning of an evolving conversation between art, craft, and contemporary living. With Jodi Clark’s paintings continuing to inform the studio’s direction, the collection feels less like a static debut and more like an unfolding body of work — one grounded in collaboration, material knowledge, and the enduring value of things made well.
