| Corrie van Rijn was born and raised in the fishing town of Katwijk aan Zee in the Netherlands. She has been fascinated by fabrics and clothes ever since she remembers and was given a tiny sewing machine at the age of four, on which she made clothes for her dolls. Her parents bought her a beautiful new sewing machine at the age of eleven and she has been designing and making clothes ever since. In the early seventies she made clothes for Dutch glam rock stars. Corrie has always had an attraction towards exotic textiles and clothes and working for the educational service of the museum of anthropology in Leiden, Holland in the mid seventies only made this passion stronger. In 1979 she met John Garrie Roshi with whom she studied meditation until his death in 1998. Through this connection her interest in Japanese culture and simplicity of design developed. In 1982 she visited Japan for three months and the imprint still lingers. Corrie has lived and worked since 1985 in a small village in the heart of the Dorset countryside with furniture designer Alan Hussey. She trained in fashion at the Oxford and Exeter college of further education, did an Adult and Further Education Teachers training before obtaining a BA(hons) Degree in Fashion and Textile Design at the University of the West of England in Bristol. She was invited to the acclaimed textile exhibition in the American Museum in Britain, Bath march 2001- november 2001, showing a specially designed Shaker range, alongside 16 of the most innovative textile designers in Britain e.g. Kaffe Fasset, Carole Waller, Candace Bahouth. Corrie now designs and markets exciting simple clothes with a flavour of oriental workwear, using beautiful natural fabrics, hand waxed linens and simple block prints, beautifully crafted, “Corrie van Rijn clothing is so perfectly turned that the garment could easily be worn inside out”, (YOU, Sunday Mail March 2001) She also works in film and theatre on costume design. Her work can be viewed on line at www.van-rijn.co,uk or by appointment at the Askerswell Showroom. Telephone: 01308485544 or e-mail corrie@van-rijn.co.uk |