From the hot sun and vibrant colors of her homeland, Iraq, to the Scandinavian cold with its clear but minimal colors, these exceptional life experiences have inspired her to experiment with materials that express contrasts. Her designs form a unique unity, incorporating the colors she has experienced in both worlds. She combines this with minimized patterns from ancient Iraqi cultures.
Mesopotamia
Her journey begins in Iraq, the ancient Mesopotamia, the cradle of civilization and cultures that still fascinate her. As a student of Design and Decoration, she incorporated elements of Assyrian and Sumerian cultures into her drawings and paintings. During her education, she learned various techniques such as printmaking, calligraphy, graphic design, and drawing.
Designer at Iraqi Fashion House Baghdad
At the Iraqi Fashion House in Baghdad, which focuses on clothing as an art form and showcases these ancient cultures, she further specialized and developed herself. She learned techniques such as stencil painting and brushing on textiles. She won awards as the best designer, which allowed her to travel to European cities. Even then, she believed it would be wonderful to get to know Western culture and apply everything she had learned.
Independent Designer in Baghdad
After a successful period at the Iraqi Fashion House, she started working independently in her own studio called Shal, where she sold her own hand-painted clothing to important clients, including embassy personnel from various countries. She had a good income, and creatively, she was happy. She decorated clothing in her own way with her own style, doing what she loved most. She felt like a fish in water.
Leaving Iraq
However, the Gulf War between America and Iraq disrupted her life. She vividly remembers her brother coming to her and saying, “We are no longer safe here. You must flee today. Tonight, I will take you to the Jordanian border.” With great sadness and pain in her heart, she left for an unknown destination in 1994. She could never inform her clients that she was leaving or where she was going, for her own safety. She spent a challenging time in Amman, Jordan, but she quickly refocused on her creative work. She sold her hand-painted garments, such as abayas and capes, to boutique hotels. After nine months, she received a message from the United Nations that she could join her parents, who had already fled Iraq, in Stockholm.
A Fresh Start in Stockholm – The Stark Contrast
The first thing she noticed was the enormous difference in temperature and the Swedish landscape. The pure, bright colors, ice, and snow made a deep impression on her. The contrast with her birth country could hardly have been greater. She quickly learned the Swedish language and resumed her textile design work. She became an interpreter and had the opportunity to learn silk painting. A Swedish artist provided her with a studio, and with the warm colors of her homeland still in her mind, she designed a collection of colorful scarves. She used sea salt to achieve a unique effect with the colors. She also mastered the screen-printing technique to print her patterns on clothing. She showcased and sold her work at fashion shows.
Meanwhile, her sister and her children had fled to the Netherlands, and her parents joined their grandchildren in Eindhoven. Because of the strong family bond, Hala decided to move to Eindhoven after nine years in Sweden.
Netherlands – Another Fresh Start
As a Swedish student, she enrolled in a bachelor’s program at the Maastricht Academy of Fine Arts in 2003 to learn the latest textile design techniques. During this period, she also learned the Dutch language, which she found more challenging than Swedish. Her internship at the high-end fabrics atelier Malhia Kent in Paris had a significant impact on her color and material development. She enjoyed the style and couture in Paris and the tremendous freedom she had. She experimented with materials and colors almost day and night in the weaving workshop. Thanks to her creative talent, some of her designs were selected as couture weaves for Primiére Vision.
During her education, she developed the idea of using the influences from her life in different worlds as inspiration for her unique textile designs for interiors. Her graduation project in 2008 was named “My Scandinavian Dreamhouse – East meets West.” She experimented with available techniques such as knitting, weaving, and laser cutting at the Textielmuseum. It was during this period that the seeds were planted for her unique design concept, which would become her own style.
Hala has founded her company, Halle Design. However, before she could start, she faced significant personal setbacks as both of her parents fell seriously ill. Alongside her sister, she took care of them until their passing in 2010 and 2012.
Halle Design – Connecting worlds with textiles
After a brief but intense period of mourning with her family, she was able to launch her company, Halle Design. The goal was to create exclusive textile designs for fashion and interiors and bring the concept she developed during her graduation to the market. She sells her unique and mostly handmade products, such as cushions, scarves, and capes, through Etsy.
In recent years, she has shifted her focus to textile designs for interiors, and she has found success in this area. She designs double-sided 3D room dividers and wall hangings according to her unique concept in collaboration with the Textielmuseum in Tilburg. Her stunning 3D woven room dividers and wall hangings, titled “A Scandinavian Tale of 1001 Nights,” have been showcased at Glue and Meesterlijk in Amsterdam, as well as Masterly (curated by Nicole Uniquole) in Milan and The Hague. They were also featured at Index in Dubai and Qatar. She was present at Dutch Design Week and Dubai Downtown Design in 2022, resulting in a beautiful publication in Casa Vogue Brasil. Trend watchers and forecasters have also taken notice of her designs, seeing a future for them due to their sound-absorbing properties, which contribute to inclusivity and well-being in busy spaces. Especially after the pandemic, this is essential as many people work partially from home and desire a separated space or a beautiful and tranquil semi-open space in open offices. In collaboration with Mondilab, she has created a collection of acoustic wall panels and a carpet in her unique style.
“There are still many ideas to develop and create beautiful products for, allowing the world to enjoy them.” Her dream is to see her work featured in a major project. She currently collaborates extensively with EE-Exclusive, which provides opportunities to create highly refined textile designs that she will present at international shows in the coming years.
Website: https://www.halle-design.com
