When Karri Bryant arrived at the 2025 UNCF Atlanta Mayor’s Masked Ball in a form fitting, black and nude-colored gown, it sparked a national conversation almost instantly.
Photos from the Dec. 20 event circulated widely online, prompting debate over whether the dress was appropriate for the wife of Jamal Bryant, pastor of New Birth Missionary Baptist Church and one of Atlanta’s most visible religious leaders.
The controversy quickly moved beyond fashion as social media users dissected the gown through the lens of faith, gender expectations, and respectability politics. Jamal Bryant further fanned the flames when he addressed the backlash during a New Year’s Eve sermon and later defended the look alongside his wife during a Jan. 7 appearance on The Tamron Hall Show. There, Karri Bryant, an executive pastor at New Birth, said she selected the dress herself.
“I think there is this idea that a woman can only be one thing,” she said on the show. “I happened to marry a pastor, and so with that came the title of first lady, but there is no book for that. There is no manual for what that looks like. I have decided that the title doesn’t define me; I define what the title is.”
Lost in the viral discourse, however, is the story of one of the creators behind the dress: Rita Shamou, a Michigan-based designer whose path from sewing at home to dressing one of the most talked-about women in pop culture right now has been defined by discipline, collaboration, and determination.
Shamou, 35, is the founder and lead designer of Jazella Couture, which operates in tandem with The Fabric Boutique, a large fabric and design space in Warren, Michigan, that she co-owns with her longtime friend Ghasaq Hanna, who goes by the nickname Jessica.
While Shamou leads the creative process, designing, cutting, and finishing each garment, Hanna supports the work by sourcing materials globally and managing the business’s infrastructure.
“Rita sews and she does all the designing, and I bring in everything for her, but she’s the one that makes all the dreams come true,” Hanna said.
Shamou immigrated to the United States from Iraq in 2009 at age 19. Newly pregnant and without extended family, she found herself isolated in a new country. Determined to create something meaningful, she taught herself to sew from YouTube tutorials while raising her children at home.
“I don’t like to be just a mom sitting at home. I always used to say that when my kids grow up, I want them to be proud of their mother for not just being at home,” Shamou said.
“After I put my daughter to sleep, I used to watch videos all night, just to learn, and then the first thing I did, I bought a very small machine just for me to learn basic stuff. And then, year by year, you get better and better.”
Her first dress, a handmade dress for her daughter for a New Year’s Eve event, sparked interest among friends, and soon, requests followed. Shamou began making flower girl dresses, communion gowns, and special-occasion looks.
Recognizing Shamou’s growing reputation and talent, Hanna shared the situation with her family, who helped finance a larger operation. In 2017, the pair purchased a small fabric store and expanded it into what is now a 9,000-square-foot design and retail space. Today, Jazella Couture employs about a dozen workers and produces up to 20 custom dresses a week.
Shamou said one thing that has helped expand the business apart from their product is their customer service.
“What matters is building relationships with customers. It’s more than making a dress,” Shamou said.
That philosophy shaped Shamou’s relationship with Karri Bryant, whom she first met through Bryant’s stylist, Joyce Sheffield, as she was searching for specialty fabric and found their company. The collaboration deepened quickly as Shamou went on to create multiple wedding gowns for the Bryants’ ceremony in 2024.
Today, they continue to create custom pieces for Bryant, including the viral dress.
Shamou said the process itself was deeply collaborative, as Sheffield provided the original image and vision of the dress and worked together with Shamou and Hanna to bring the dress to reality.
She said that Sheffield and Bryant were involved at every stage of creating the gown as they reviewed materials and approved sections via FaceTime and even had Bryant travel from Atlanta to Michigan for in-person fittings.
The UNCF gown was constructed with nude illusion fabric layered beneath black Chantilly lace, which Shamou said matched the vision that Bryant and her stylist were aiming for.
Hanna said the most challenging part was the time constraint to create the dress, as they had only three weeks to complete the look. Dresses can typically take them a month or more to finish.
“We shipped the dress the day before her event, and I was just praying that it needed no alteration … and she mentioned that we had a couple [of] pins in there because we wanted it to get there as soon as possible,” Hanna said.
Once the dress appeared online, reactions poured in, with many praising its design. Hanna, who monitors the boutique’s accounts, said the response was overwhelmingly positive.
Others, however, questioned its appropriateness given Bryant’s role as a pastor’s wife. Shamou said what is important to her and the business is honoring her client’s wishes.
“You always have to make something for that person’s personality. She has a beautiful spirit, beautiful personality,” Shamou said.
For Shamou, the moment represents not controversy, but a culmination of years spent honing her craft away from the spotlight for her clients.
“You cannot make everybody happy,” Shamou said. “At least she’s happy. Her husband is happy. That’s all that matters to us.”
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This story has been updated.
