Clarifex is by far the largest manufacturer of clothing and other textiles on Ptah. It also designs and merchandizes a huge number of brands of personal and lifestyle accessories, sporting equipment, home furnishings, and cosmetics. The Clothing and Fashion segment produces the products for which Clarifex has been celebrated for centuries: nearly every type of clothing for all ages in a variety of social strata, specializing in high-end fashion and incorporating those design elements into lower-end offerings. Their most well-known and profitable product lines include Regality, Invocation Fashions, Adroit Glory, Ahankara Sport, Lila Linga, Enchantment, and Shibboleth Mode. The Personal Accessories segment offers jewelry, footwear, eyewear, leather goods, luggage, sports equipment, and personal electronics, including chronographs, cosmetic wetware, and personal graphic interface modules in a variety of styles under Elzbieta Grand Label, Telephoros, Duran-Ke, Sankalpa Ornamentals, Apogee, Howard's Peerless, and Kubernetes brands . The Home Furnishings segment produces sundries such as linens, plumbing fixtures, wall décor, lighting, and furniture. The Industrial Textiles segment is the workhorse of the corporation (bringing in an estimated 47% of net profit); the segment manufactures silicon ether and photocrystal cilia weaves used in oceanic and space travel; aramid filament for aerospace and military applications; fullerene nano-fibers for a variety of industrial purposes; trilobal thermoplastic filaments for optics and various technical uses; and many others. Much of the segment's profit stream comes from undisclosed sources which likely comprise private contracts with government and military clients.

Clarifex has gone through a number of changes in recent years, but few have affected it so profoundly as the appointment of Michael Anu as PCK. A creative genius who was placed in the top position through a complex flurry of accidents and business maneuvering, Anu was a relative unknown in the corporate world (having risen in the design arm of the company) but has become the "golden boy" of Clarifex. Anu began at a very early age in the design segment and made a name for himself on the runways of Memphis and Beltaus. He managed his own label and was canny about his department's finances and reputation, but none expected him to ever sit in the chairman's seat.

In the twelve years since Anu's appointment, Clarifex has experienced a renaissance of creativity, rocketing beyond its previous market share to take a spot amongst the most powerful corporations on Ptah. Anu sees himself as a "warrior-poet"; colleagues and friends describe him as a kind of whirlwind of creative endeavor: sometimes unpredictable and terrifying but always fascinating. Some say his real genius lies in delegating day-to-day operations (which Anu has publicly said he finds dull and uninteresting) to highly competent underlings, but none can deny that it is his personal vision that has reinvigorated the company. He has initiated dozens of major new projects, and though some of these are not successful, for every failure (such as the much reviled Espial line of rigid, semi-opaque fashion), he has a handful of stunning successes (like the "Eye of Osiris" brand of optics). A recent issue of Adept magazine called Anu, "a mad, visionary wizard, a virtuoso who, rather than symphonies, plays monofilament silk and profit margins."

Though he has shown little interest in the industrial textile segment of the company, Anu is smart enough to know that the major revenue stream of the corporation now comes from that division and he ensures it is well funded. (This also keeps the board and investors satisfied.) Some openly wondered why a design and textile house, even one as powerful as Clarifex, showed any interest in the coming Rain (other than as an opportunity to increase sales of materials used in the exploration). Anu sees the Rain as a kind of sign, a challenge to be overcome and an anointing of the creative spirit. More than anything, he finds the unprecedented cosmic event romantic, a mythic inspiration to awaken the world to beauty and wonder. Wherever he chooses to take the company, though, the public has shown that they adore Anu and will follow his exploits with interest (and market share).

Observers had always found it ironic that Clarifex's corporate headquarters were as utilitarian and traditional as they were, given the creative focus of the company. Anu has taken steps to reinvent Clarifex's HQ and allowed the company's best employees to have a say in the face the corporation presents to the world. Design suggestions were solicited at all levels of the company, and those which seemed most interesting to Anu were refined and applied to the various buildings making up the sprawl of Clarifex East. The result delights some, annoys others, and mystifies most. One building in the corporate complex might be painted in traditional murals done in fluorescent tribal colors; the next might have a façade of an industrial pipeworks; the next still might have a roof made of crystal facets and towers of ebony. The complex is situated on the outskirts of East Canyon on one of the many broad, descending plateaus that eventually drop into the Usum Rift.

Long ago, Clarifex was a textile-manufacturing guild that made "high fashion" a pervasive aspect of aristocratic culture. Over time, their fabrics incorporated techniques, colors, and patterns that were widely thought to be impossible... or at least impossible to reproduce. Their creations were available only to nobility and the ruling class (originally by royal decree-commoners found wearing the vestments could be executed). Over the years, what started as an exclusive service to kings grew to include clothing and other fabrics for the nouveau riche: those who wanted to dress like kings. Then the middle classes wanted clothing that looked like that worn by those above them, and Clarifex catered to their needs. In time the core business grew to the point that Clarifex fashions were dominant worldwide and the Clarifex label became synonymous with quality.
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Clarifex was always a profitable corporation, but in recent years had begun to lose its cache as a design house. This trend was most clearly embodied in the person of Robert E. Howard, the PCK of the corporation for forty years (directly previous to Anu's term in the office). Howard was a fine leader and a savvy businessman. Under his leadership Clarifex gave investors good returns-he is especially credited with growing the industrial textiles segment, which he always considered his greatest accomplishment. But while profits were increasing, the company's image as a fashion leader was dissipating. Lorna Alexander was famously quoted as saying that Clarifex's offerings were "like an old spinster still dutifully putting on her faded couture and demanding attention. But we aren't looking any more." Howard's response that fashion was just a "fad of the moment" shocked even some his most ardent supporters. Still, the corporate board and the company's largest investors continued to support Howard, and for a time it seemed as though Clarifex would become solely an industrial concern.

When Howard suffered a myocardial infarction, it caught everyone by surprise. (It was later revealed that Howard had known of his medical condition but kept the information from his colleagues.) He had always been a solitary man and no successor had been groomed for the position. A great deal of jockeying and back-room maneuvering ensued, with various board members and investor factions backing a handful of candidates (among them current Industrial Textiles EV Harland Rauf), but none was able to secure enough support to earn the appointment. As tremors ran through Clarifex's market share due to the instability, the board finally settled on Michael Anu to fill the position. (Even twelve years later, a raft of theories about why the board plucked the mercurial Anu from the Design division are floated about, ranging from, "He was the least offensive choice to all parties involved," [Esmerelda Llinos, Commerce Today] to, "The board wanted a patsy and thought a designer with his head in the clouds would be easy to control" [Sean Pravin Zdenko, Capital and Labor].)

Whatever the reason, Anu proved to be a powerful social force, restoring the luster to the Clarifex name and increasing its market share through brilliant marketing and clever business ventures. Last season's "Isis' Embrace" line thrilled the press at Beltaus with designs Anu states were inspired by the Rain: diaphanous draping, translucent and glittering fabrics, and cooler tones. This kind of media coup has gone further than any textile research toward rejuvenating Clarifex's image.

Some investors have expressed concern over Anu's seeming obsession with the Rain, and business outlets have been abuzz with debate over his stated intention to invest corporate assets into exploring the phenomenon. Anu defends his stance by pointing out the many new elements and materials that might be found within the Rain which might well have inestimable industrial and scientific value; privately, many suggest it is simply wish fulfillment on the part of a passionate dreamer who wants to visit the stars.

Clarifex has many ties with Rosetta North. Anu recognizes the importance of image perhaps more than any other major PCK and has spent enormous amounts of capital on ad campaigns and other media intended to restore the company's name as a byword of social grace and trendsetting fashion. Clarifex is one of Rosetta's most important clients. Moshe Bergenfield has suggested that he and Anu share an artistic vision that many of their contemporaries lack.

Since Howard's tenure, Panis Global has been Clarifex's largest customer, and some of the materials coming out of the Industrial Textiles segment have revolutionized Panis' designs. Of late, Rachel Towns has publicly chided Anu for focusing on the fashion arm of the corporation at the expense of ongoing research for more "practical and important" applications. Several research partnerships between the two corporations have been allowed to lapse, and the gossip is that bad blood is growing between them.

DDH Matsya has relied heavily on Clarifex's products in the past decades; many of DDH's spacecraft components (especially the vaunted solar sails) are built entirely by Clarifex. It is clear in the industry that Matsya wants that technology in their own hands and have been working to replicate Clarifex's processes, but so far to no avail. Several attempts at corporate sabotage have been blamed on DDH, but none have yet been able to prove that the company is behind the attacks.

Anu has made clear more than once that he personally dislikes Anne Selket and finds the Alinas corporation distastefully dull, but Alinas provides a vast amount of the raw material Clarifex uses in its manufacturing processes. He may not like her, but Anu is forced to work with Selket until such time as he can find another supplier or grow his own raw materials in house.

Since the beginning, the name Clarifex has meant quality. Our fashions have adorned princes and priests, celebrities and millionaires-and we have brought that luxury to everyone who wants to join with us in living the originality that is within us all. Now our inspiration is in the clothes you wear, the furnishings in your home, the accessories you choose, the vehicles you drive. Clarifex isn't just a brand: it's a vision of a more beautiful world. Whether in the mall or on the battlefield, Clarifex fabrics cover your every need.

Clarifex: Wear Your Spirit.