[22][23] Born in Germany, Hill comes from a background of tailors of Czech origin on her mother's side.

She returned to Europe in 2008 and now lives in Berlin,[26] where she is an active member of the performing arts scene[27][17][18][28][29][30] and continues to work with textiles as a costume and stage designer.

[31][32][33][34][35] In 1998, she founded two fashion labels, the eponymous Claudia Hill and The Number After 10,[36] which were presented and sold in Japan, the US and Europe, at her own store,[37] in high-end boutiques, such as Barneys New York or Fred Segal[38][39] and later exclusively at private salons in limited editions.

[26][36] Her New York Fashion Week shows were deemed unconventional and took the form of performances or installations,[40] often in collaboration with other artists, such as Asymptote Architecture[22] or Skúli Sverrisson.

As her designs expanded beyond the boundaries of the fashion industry, she created the costumes for William Forsythe's Decreation in 2003[6][41] and for The Wooster Group's production of Hamlet in 2007.