Creative industry chameleon Claire Yurika Davis is ready for her next chapter, helping you tap into your creative potential.

Spirituality and astrology have proved to have natural healing powers for those searching for guidance. Utilising these resources to empower people into discovering their own purpose in life, multi-faceted artist and fashion designer Claire Yurika Davis continues to educate and guide others with the same principles that helped nurture her own journey.

 

With up to a decade’s experience as a visual artist and designer, creating and building innovative ideas from the ground up is a skillset that Claire has adapted over the years. Discouraged by the fashion industry’s lack of opportunity for artists who are unable to take on unpaid internships or ill-paid roles, Claire took it upon herself to instead build an opportunity from scratch. Forever creating, the artist has successfully established three businesses – from her renewable fashion brand HANGER to co-founding an ethics agency called CogDis and providing spiritual healing resources through The High Priestxss – it’s fair to say the creative is never short of ideas.

 

Claire continues to prove that she is a connoisseur of the arts, as she keeps the dice rolling at all times. Meticulously working towards a new journey of setting boundaries between her work and the fashion industry, the artist is slowly accumulating a collection of new material. We spoke to Claire about how she began her journey in the creative sphere, the cultural divide between art and design, and most importantly, what exciting projects are to come this year.

I wanted to start by talking about HANGER… What inspired you to make your own brand? Did you feel there was a gap in the market for this particular style?

That’s interesting, somehow I haven’t actually been asked that question before. No one has ever asked me why I started HANGER. I always wanted to have my own brand, since I was a kid, I always wanted to be a designer – I love making clothes. I went down the route of getting a degree, after that I really wanted a job, but I couldn’t get one, because obviously, you need years of previous intern experience.

 

I couldn’t afford to do that, which meant I couldn’t get my foot in the door with any design jobs, so I started my brand. Not just because I wanted to have one, but in a way, I knew I didn’t have the option to do anything else. It was the only way that I could actually start making clothes in the real world.

I read that you work actively as a garment designer. Is HANGER your main outlet to feature and promote your fashion? Or do you feature a selection of designers?

I’ve been making stuff, but all of it has been in private. HANGER is not at a point in its life of being public right now. It may happen again, sometime soon, but for now, it’s still under wraps. I’ve been making garments here and there, but I think because I’ve spent so much of my life producing for the public eye, the past couple of years I’ve focused on making a lot of new material (fashion, sculptures, art, paintings) in private.

 

I’ve not shown a lot of my creative output to anybody, except friends. I’m coming into a space where I’m learning about the value of keeping something hidden, protected and under wraps until it’s time for it to see the light. I’m really conscious of what I’m sharing at the moment because I’m really aware of people observing, not just me, but my creative work.

Did you always know that this was an area you wanted to get into?

Yeah, I always wanted to be a designer. It was basically either: I’m going to make clothes or I’m going to ride horses. Those were my two obsessions. I love horses so much. My mum was like ‘a sewing machine is cheaper’. I’ve always been into creating, when I was younger all we did was paint, and I’d paint horses. I knew I was going to do something artistic or creative, but I had no idea about how it all worked. Even the idea of there being an ‘industry’ I didn’t know exactly how that would pan out. My mum wanted me to be an accountant, because I also love maths – she wanted me to get a sturdy job.

Alongside designing, you’re also a visual artist and lecturer. What does being a visual artist entail for you?

So I mostly work with ceramics. I started again around 2021, the last time I worked in ceramics I was at school. Sometimes when you become a designer, in the UK, fashion is severed from any other artistic practice. As soon as you become a designer, you can no longer be an artist. They’re practically divorced. For example, for arts council funding, you can get funding for practically anything, unless you make a garment.

 

There’s also fashion that isn’t art, because in so many legislative and cultural ways fashion is separate from art. But they’re both commodity-based. As I began my fashion route, part of my psyche told me that I was no longer an artist but a designer. I didn’t revisit much of the above until a couple of years ago when a friend of mine, who is an artist, invited me to a ceramics studio and it was amazing – I made some things immediately and remembered how much I love ceramics. 

How did you begin carving careers in fashion, and lecturing alongside being a visual artist?

With fashion, I began slowly. As soon as I came out of university I went straight into a machinist job with a brand I had previously interned with for five weeks. I’m a really good sewer, it’s super handy to have good practical skills. I’m really good at making stuff, and so I went on with that alongside working part-time at Spring Studios and then in between those things, I slowly started building my brand.

You also co-created an ethics agency called ‘CogDis’ with collaborative partners Faith Robinson and Florence Huntington-Whiteley. Can you tell me a bit about this project? How did it come together?

That actually came together because Flo and I were on our way to work and were chatting about how we should be the ones running an agency. Every day we would talk about how certain campaigns were bullshit and would talk about ways they could do things better. We finally came to the realisation; ‘why don’t we just tell them directly?’ At this point, Flo and I were partners and were figuring out our next steps. Flo had experience working inside big corporate brands, whilst I had experience working with smaller, cooler ones. We chatted about how to get the dice rolling, and who would be good to collaborate our ideas with. She later suggested her friend Faith, who already had this idea together in a deck, and told us that she’d been working towards this idea, but didn’t have anyone to do it with. 

Moving on to ‘The High Priestxss’ – how have you found using this platform to promote self-healing through astrology and tarot readings? Would you say it’s been beneficial for your own path of self-discovery and growth?

Yeah, definitely. That business is an interesting one because, at the moment, it’s on pause. It’s been on pause for maybe half a year. The last project that Portia and I (my partner) did, was around self-love. We put out that project because that’s what we were doing at the time. We were basically documenting some of the exercises, readings and tools we were using to come to terms with our own self-exploration and what we were going through at that time. It was completely intertwined. Now, looking forward, that period isn’t finished, but it’s on pause until we bring out our next theme. Which I think we’ll bring up later in the year.

You’re constantly guiding others and giving perspective, and resources – which is really uplifting. How do you make sure you give that same energy back to yourself? How do you unwind from all of the above? Do you listen to any playlists or podcasts?

I spend a lot of time on my own, I love my own company. I love to sing alongside music, with no one around me. Last November I went to the Spanish mountains, in complete isolation – it was quite drastic. I recently realised that the amount of time that I need on my own is quite a lot. So, I have to make sure that at least a few evenings a week, I’m completely on my own and that nobody’s bothering me. I like to give myself time to read, watch videos, and relax. It’s not too complicated. I don’t listen to too many podcasts at the minute, but I do listen to healers that I respect, which are Tatianna Tarot and The Hood Healer.

What has been your most memorable lesson you’ve learned so far as a multi-talented creative designer, visual artist and lecturer?

Learning to have clear and precise intentions for every single thing that you do, because without that you just waste time. When I’m teaching, I always think about what I want people to question. You need to know what the intended effect is, so you can make it happen. Otherwise, you’re just there. You might not know the exact finished product, but you should have an idea and a drive behind it.

Lastly, you recently shared on your main Instagram that you have “BIG fashion & spirituality plans this year”. That’s exciting, can you expand on this a little bit? What can we expect to see from Claire in 2023?

One thing I can tell you is that I’m really trying to blend all of my skill sets together. I want to start teaching people how to make their own clothes. I love being a teacher, but what I love more is teaching people how to do stuff without me. Also, on the other side of that, you get to wear something that has your energy in it, which instantly makes it more powerful.

 

I think a lot of people underestimate their creative potential. I’m planning to start a programme, and maybe courses, where I can teach people how to make stuff and how to reach their own potential. I’m obsessed with ceremonial gowns; I think everybody deserves them. It would be wonderful to have sessions with creatives where we discuss affirmations, what they want to embody in life and the energies they want to bring into their life, and then co-create and design a garment together to go alongside these elements. I want to help people to create something that has their own specific elements that represent themselves. There is power in garments, in a personal and artistic way.