Hannah Refaat is an award-winning multidisciplinary textile designer. She received her MA from the world-renowned Royal College of Art, where she studied Mixed-media and specialised in embroidery. She is based at Cockpit Studios in London after winning the Radcliffe Trust Craft Development award in 2018. 

At Cockpit, Hannah developed her eclectic range of embroidered products, on a commission and made-to-order basis. She has worked on one-off freelance projects in film, fashion and advertising. Hannah also teaches on the textile’s courses at London College of Fashion, Manchester Metropolitan, and Loughborough, where she studied her BA.

Hannah focuses on a combination of hand- and machine-embroidered textiles. Her visual research explores the environment of the Middle East, where she spent many months forming countless memories. Hannah is inspired by her Egyptian heritage, where she adopts a fusion of traditional Middle Eastern techniques, aiming to modernise them in inventive ways by using bold colour combinations and a range of materials and techniques. Every material she uses is carefully considered, using different weights and surfaces to create layers and depth to her work. Hannah works extremely organically and intuitively by viewing her work as painting; the stitch is her paint, and the fabric is the canvas.