Jessica Halabi’s childhood living room rug doubled as her first design studio. She spent hours upon hours sprawled upon its threads threads, pencil in hand, sketching dresses.
“I was like, ‘One day I’m going to make these, one day I’m going to make these.’ And suddenly — ‘one day’ became for real.”
Halabi studied fashion design locally at MC College (then called Marvel College). Post-graduation, she found her niche creating custom fashion and bridal gowns for clients, often focusing on modest wear. But the fashion designer took on a new creative challenge when The Sugar Mama TV docuseries invited Halabi to craft a dress that truly represented who she was.” I create for others, for my clients,” she explains. “When it’s so deeply personal, I’m like, How am I going to show myself?”
She started thinking of home — about the heart of every get-together and where the threads of her passion first wove together.
“The root of the gathering area is probably the living room, and then I was like, ‘What’s in the living room?’”
The answer was in her memory all along.
“The rug. The rug is where we always gather and sit. It reminds me of my childhood, laying on the rug with my family — my grandmother, my aunts, my parents.”
This connection weaves well past Halabi’s childhood, back through generations.
“Even when traveling to Lebanon, where my ancestors are from and my family is from, and going through the souk (market) — the rugs are so prominent. It’s so beautiful. They have so much background in history and creation.”
Halabi sourced a second-hand Persian Bokhara rug from a friend, ensuring her design has a background of its own. “I didn’t want to cut into a brand-new rug — that would be so sad. I found a pre-loved rug from another loving home that was going to be in the landfill. I wanted this to be sustainable and have some history behind it.”
But the process was far from seamless. Needles snapped. Fabric fought back. She vacuumed, sewed, vacuumed again. By the end, Halabi was left questioning her sanity. But quitting? Not an option.
The final gown keeps the integrity of the rug intact, a reflection of Halabi’s commitment to authenticity. Halabi didn’t minimize its origin — instead, she embraced the fact that it was made from a rug, proving it could be “both striking and beautiful.” The dress, with the original rug fabric, is elevated by a velvet overskirt inspired by the draped curtains of formal sitting rooms — yet another nod to the gathering spaces of her childhood.
The gown currently lives in Halabi’s studio, and will be featured in a yet-to-be-disclosed project with Sugar Mama TV. Halabi poured herself into the creation of this gown — and she expects this personal journey to shape her future as a fashion designer.
“I want my clients to feel like when they have something made, it can be just as personal. It doesn’t have to be made from a rug, but there could be personal elements tied into their piece, which makes it so important. It makes it so you connect so much more with the gown when you wear it, and it will also connect with me when I’m creating it.
“It’s such a beautiful thing to leave that imprint on something that you create.”
This article appears in the April 2025 issue of Edify
