What once started as a passion project designing thoughtful gifts for friends has evolved into a business with over $1 million in revenue. Olivia Cleary, class of 2020 alumna, Darden School of Business i.Lab participant and 2026 Forbes 30 Under 30 honoree in Art and Style, founded The Clearly Collective in 2022. The company specializes in silk scarves that feature iconic architectural landmarks from towns and cities all over the world, which combine formal architectural design with vibrant color to create a wearable piece of meaning.
Originally from Boston, Cleary said she grew up with a passion for the creative, describing herself as a kid who would stay in during recess doing art while her classmates played outside. Knowing that she wanted to pursue a career that also served as a creative outlet, Cleary turned towards architecture as a career path, which led her to the University.
“I was like, ‘As long as I get to be creative, I'll take whatever school will take me.’ And U.Va. had a really great balance,” Cleary said. “I did architecture, but it was never really the goal. It was more that I was creative and this made sense.”
In addition to her architecture degree, Cleary minored in entrepreneurship through the McIntire School of Commerce. Cleary described herself as entrepreneurial, however, before launching The Clearly Collective, she said that trait was exercised for pleasure rather than for profit. On Grounds, she frequented areas like the School of Architecture’s fabrication lab's laser-cutter for personal creative projects.
After graduating during the height of the pandemic in 2020, Cleary worked a myriad of jobs before ending up at an architecture firm in New York City in 2020, building her business on the side for a year and a half.
“The reason why Clearly Collective popped off, honestly, [is that it was] a passion project that hit the second wave of [COVID-19] really at the perfect time, and then it went viral,” Cleary said. “So it really was because I was talking about my passions and my hobbies, and other people started asking for it, and then I was like, ‘Okay, I'll make a business out of it. Why not?’”
Cleary said her idea for The Clearly Collective stemmed from the drawings she would make for friends as gifts, implementing imagery that felt personal and customized to its recipient. She then shifted to textiles because they were easier to produce at a larger scale, all the while brainstorming ways to create meaningful gifts for a larger audience.
Inspiration struck as she considered her outfit for a return to the University for a Homecomings Weekend, and she noted her desire to wear something that was related to the University that was not as generic as a t-shirt or as pronounced as a bold logo. Cleary settled on a scarf, and the Charlottesville Tundy scarf became the foundation of the future Collegiate Collection. The scarf is available in University colors — orange and navy — featuring four drawings of the Rotunda in the center bordered by the architecture of the Lawn with its pavilions and colonnades.
“I knew that if I used the Rotunda and the Lawn, that was something that resonated with everybody as part of their U.Va. experience,” Cleary said. “I was like, ‘I know this will work. I know it's something I want to use. I know it's something that my girlfriends would want to use.’”
After quitting her job in New York to focus on The Clearly Collective full-time, Cleary returned to Charlottesville to participate in the Darden i.Lab Incubator program, an innovative venture program available exclusively for University students and alumni, in 2024. She described it as returning to school but with an individualized focus on building her own business. Cleary also said she gained foundational training in idea development and the process of designing and pitching a business from the ground up.
“[The i.Lab] was one of the best experiences ever,” Cleary said. “We worked with other people, and they helped me really refine everything from the logistic side of the supply chain to, ‘Okay, how do you do a [profit and loss statement]?’”
Her newfound business acumen and existing artistic talents shaped the core principle of her business — to create a product meaningfully representing a community without a logo. College campuses and towns, full of recognizable buildings, restaurants and landscapes that facilitate connection with large groups of people, were the start.
The business has since expanded to include various European and New England summer destinations, as well as a few major U.S. metropolitan areas like New York City and Washington, D.C. It is also expanding into new product lines, featuring limited items like acrylic trays, pocket squares and card decks.
“When we're targeting the destination collection … it's to mark a milestone moment, which can be as big as the honeymoon or wedding, or it's as small as visiting your boyfriend's mom in Nantucket,” Cleary said. “The destination collection came from … [asking] ‘Well, where are people going where they want to feel that they belong?’”
These novel product lines reflect the brand’s shift in its target market from prioritizing college students to becoming a source for thoughtful gifts based on significant destinations, according to Cleary. The company has also expanded into corporate partnerships, creating custom scarves and pocket squares in collaboration with well-established brands. This includes partnerships with J.P. Morgan for the 2026 U.S. Open, the Cadillac F1 team for the Monaco Grand Prix and Mclaren for Car Week, in addition to Bacardi and the Tao Crane Club.
When exploring new collaborations, Cleary said she thinks of an event she would like to attend or a market she would like to penetrate, targeting her marketing through posting renderings of what a potential branded product could look like on social media. The Clearly Collective Instagram page currently shows a mix of such possibilities, such as a post highlighting a theoretical design for the New England Patriots or the Newport International Polo Series.
Cleary said her future plans include further expanding her company beyond textiles, reinforcing the shift in targeted consumers and desire to be known as more than the “college silk scarf company.” She is considering applying creative designs to plates and dinnerware, fabric for furniture or pillows, rugs, collegiate claw clips and cosmetic bags for future product launches — many of which already have mock-ups featured on the company’s Instagram.
“We'll be branching into [homeware]. We're doing a little bit of fashion collabs this summer, so there's lots of fun stuff coming along the way,” Cleary said.
As The Clearly Collective continues to grow, its central theme remains rooted in the importance of physical places and representing them beautifully, which started in Charlottesville. Cleary’s inspiration from her time at the University fashioned the iconic architecture of Grounds into pieces of wearable art, an idea that created a business allowing people to bring a small part of a special place with them wherever they may be.
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