By Je’Don Hollway Talley | For The Birmingham Times
Jessica Hayes is no ordinary dressmaker. She’s a special occasions designer who learned to leverage skills she learned in architectural classes with her love for glamorous fashion—and now she creates what she describes as “wearable art.”
“It’s the architecture of fashion,” Hayes said. “I have a keen eye for trends, I’m creative and innovative, and I love expressing my artistic vision through my designs.”
Hayes, 31, started her fashion line, House of Avid, in 2016. She has since completed five full collections and is preparing for one of her specialties: prom season. Two months ago, she hosted her Seventh Annual Prom Queen Tour Pop-Up Shop in Center Point, Alabama.
More than 100 girls stood in line to try on the 2024 House of Avid prom gown collection, from which more than 50 gowns were sold to Birmingham area girls. The House of Avid team conducted more than 20 custom consultations at the event, helping promgoers move their ideas from concepts to bona fide fashion designs.
The dressmaker, who also specializes in creating custom ensembles, recalls her own senior prom. Hayes attended A.H. Parker High School, and the event was held at the Harbert Center in downtown Birmingham.
“Prom was definitely a fun experience, but I wasn’t involved in picking out my dress,” she said. “My mom literally came home with the dress and said, ‘Here’s the dress you’re wearing for prom.’ It was a beautiful dress. It was baby blue, it had some rhinestones on it, my back was completely out, and it had sheer details on it that were super cute. I just didn’t get to pick it out.”
“We did a cute little send-off in front of my house, and my mom drove me to the prom and picked me up. I was able to hang out with all my friends, and that was kind of a big deal because I didn’t do a lot of hanging out in high school.”
“Amazing Experience”
Luckily for Hayes, her mom had good fashion sense. Still, because she missed the opportunity to come up with her look, the designer provides that experience to girls who turn to her when preparing for their special events.
“I try to make the process of designing and getting a custom dress an amazing experience, with all of the fun in the design studio talking about different fabrics and materials. It gives [girls] a complete custom experience, and they truly know they’re getting a one-of-a-kind dress,” said Hayes, who added that proms play an important part in a girl’s life.
In fact, she said, proms are “absolutely” precursors to a girl’s future wedding day.
“As far as social occasions, your prom and your wedding day are sometimes the only times you’ll get special occasion dresses made,” said Hayes. “Prom is the first most important day in a girl’s life, and then her wedding day [becomes] the most important day.”
Part of making women and girls feel luxurious and glamorous lies in the details, fabrics, and embellishments. “I look for high-quality materials that match my vision and complement the pieces,” said Hayes. “It’s important to consider factors like texture, color, durability, and sustainability when sourcing and picking fabrics.”
For weddings, Hayes will not only create the bride’s gown but also tailor bridesmaid dresses, bow ties, and handkerchiefs for the groom and groomsmen, as well as custom bridal robes, reception dresses, and more.
In addition to dressing young ladies for the special occasions in their lives, Hayes designs for celebrities. She has provided gowns for FOX television network shows “Black Lightning” and “Star”; for the Oprah Winfrey Network (OWN) series “Ambitions”; and for clients such as R&B singers K. Michelle and Dondria and reality TV star Dr. Heavenly Kimes of “Married to Medicine”—all of which were done despite Hayes not always having a showroom and dedicated design space.
“A Double Order”
In her early days, her custom jobs started with house calls. The first prom dresses she ever designed were in 2017 for a set of twins, Iman and Imari, out of Birmingham.
“It was a double order. They asked for two completely different-looking dresses, and they were not easy,” Hayes pointed out. “[One twin] had a blue-and-green tuille mermaid-looking dress with a train, and [the other] had a super-wavy dress in purple-and-hot pink tuille with ruffles at the bottom. Their dress colors blended well together, and they were super tailored and fit their bodies very well. [The twins] went viral on social media.”
As for how she comes up with the inspiration for her custom gowns, Hayes explained the design ideas come from her clients.
“A lot of the inspiration comes from when I meet with my clients, who I ask to bring inspiration pictures to [the consultation]. … Based on the images they bring, I ask questions about their personal style and things that they like. I show them examples and different fabrics and materials, so they can choose exactly what they want. Then I add details based on what I think would look best for their body,” Hayes said.
When it comes to designing new collections, Hayes said she sees inspiration all around her, even in architecture.
“I get inspiration from buildings and different flowers, things that I see daily, and I implement that into my garments,” said Hayes. “My own collections, they’re my style. I also do a lot of studying on what’s trending, and I may use certain design elements. … When I see certain materials in the fabric store, I may get a vision for a dress. … I use different elements, different structures that I think will accent the female body.”
Asked if she has a favorite design, Hayes raved over a recent custom bridal gown.
“It has a really long ruffled train with a split in the front, a built-in corset, handstitched beading, and rhinestones. It was really blinged out. The sleeves and chest area had rhinestones on them. My bride had her wedding in Florida, and we actually drove down to Florida to help her get into the dress and help style her for her pictures.”
Learning to Sew
When Hayes began learning her way around a sewing machine, elegant ballroom gowns weren’t even a figment of her imagination. The Birmingham native, who grew up in the West End-Powderly neighborhood, was 12 years old and attending Arrington Middle School when she started learning the basics.
“My next-door neighbor taught me how to sew. I asked if she could teach me how to use her machine, and she started by teaching me how to make pillows and slipcovers for couches,” said Hayes. “I’ve always been a fashion girl, so eventually I started making clothes for myself, then friends started asking me to make pieces for them.”
Hayes taught herself to draw, but the art classes she took at A.H. Parker High School, her alma mater, helped her fine-tune her skills. To further sharpen her sewing skills, she said, “I’ve used YouTube tutorials to learn different techniques, and there was definitely trial and error.”
“It was a combination of tutorials, hands-on practice with my mentor, [my next-door neighbor], and experimenting with different stitches and techniques that helped me become more skilled and confident in using the machine.”
Hayes grew up in a home with her two sisters and single working mother. “We would be home after school waiting for our mom, and instead of killing time watching TV, I used to go next door and sew,” Hayes recalled. “When I really started getting good, my mom and grandma had me make pillows for them. Then my mom bought me my own sewing machine when I was 13. My dad also supported me by coming to fashion shows I hosted at [A.H. Parker High School].”
Hayes, who went on to attend Tuskegee University, in Tuskegee, Alabama, made her first special occasion gown while attending college in 2014. Bringing that sketch to life was more challenging than she had anticipated.
“By this point, I had been sewing for years, but it was harder than I expected,” she said. “Persistence and practice paid off. I honed my skills and developed techniques to help me realize my creative visions.”
College Years and Fashion Shows
A member of Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority, Inc., Hayes earned a bachelor’s degree in business administration in 2015 from Tuskegee. She majored in architecture for three years but switched gears.
“I had to retake a math class to get into the professional architecture program. If I had retaken that class, it would’ve put me behind a whole year in school. My scholarship wouldn’t have covered the additional year, so I went with plan B and switched my major to business administration,” Hayes explained. “Thankfully, I had already learned design skills, such as how to use [a computer-aided design (CAD) program], and incorporated them into my fashion design [process].”
While at Tuskegee, Hayes participated in a modeling troop and hosted fashion shows.
“I was a member of the Rave Review Modeling Troop,” she said. “I was the secretary one year and the vice president another year. I styled multiple fashion shows and created the looks. One year, we created garments out of trash bags [for] ‘The Trash Bag Show,’ [which became] our signature show.”
After graduating, Hayes relocated to Atlanta, Georgia, where there were more opportunities.
Post College
“When I first moved to Atlanta, [I] worked at Nordstrom [department store] to get luxury retail experience and became part of the [company’s] Future Leaders Program,” she said. “After I left Nordstrom, I went corporate and got into advertising and sales to expand my sales experience—all while making dresses from my apartment. I stopped working full-time in 2017 because I wanted to focus on my company. I would be at my desk sketching, and knew I needed to be at home sewing.”
Hayes designed out of her Atlanta apartment for three years before opening the House of Avid showroom in Decatur, Georgia, in 2019. Building her design house didn’t come without challenges.
“Navigating the complexities of production and distribution and balancing them with creative innovation and practical business strategies, has been a continuous challenge,” she said.
Hayes’s custom gowns and initial prototypes can take up to 100 hours over the course of several weeks to complete.
“Some garments can be done in three hours, and more detailed garments can take months,” she said. “It just depends on the intricacy of the design.”
There’s something magical about knowing people will create memories that last a lifetime in her gowns.
“I love the idea of being part of someone’s cherished moments. It’s truly a rewarding and fulfilling aspect of fashion designing for me,” said Hayes. “Prom is such a special time in a girl’s life, and I believe my dresses make them feel like the belle of the ball. When it comes to bridal, creating a custom wedding gown is such an intimate journey between the bride and me. … I strive to ensure that the bride feels like the most beautiful version of herself. It’s a privilege to contribute to someone’s happiness and confidence on their special day.”
Garments from Jessica Hayes’s showroom are available for purchase online at www.thehouseofavid.com, and virtual and in-person consultations are conducted daily for her growing clientele across the nation. Find her on Facebook, Instagram, and TikTok @JessicaHayesDesigns and @HouseofAvid. For bookings and info, email contactsupport@thehouseofavid.com.
(Full disclosure: The author, Je’Don Holloway Talley, helped to promote the Seventh Annual Prom Queen Tour Pop-Up Shop event in Center Point, Alabama.)
Updated at 4:52 p.m. on 4/4/2024 to correct the photo credit.
