Today we’d like to introduce you to Jessie Dib. Them and their team share their story with us below:
Jessie Dib was born and raised in Caracas, Venezuela. She started to design for herself and her dolls at age 11 and hasn’t stopped since. She spent quality time with her father, a full-time dentist and part-time jeweler/bonsai master, in her teenage years making jewelry and objects. Jessie designed and created garments and jewelry pieces throughout high school and sold them to her friends and family – planting the seed for her entrepreneurial spirit.
While studying fashion design at SCAD, she interned for Vera Wang, producing most of the jewelry for her Spring 2010 show. During her senior year, she was mentored by Zac Posen, who found her idea of incorporating jewelry within her designs unique and modern. After graduating, she moved to New York, intending to learn about the industry from every possible angle; she worked with renowned fashion designers such as Elie Tahari, Alejandro Ingelmo, Frank Tell, and Angel Sanchez. She also worked with brands such as Uniqlo, Gap, and Banana Republic to enhance her technical skills and design and created two Wedding dresses as freelance projects. With all this experience and encouragement from Angel Sanchez, after designing a jewelry collection for his spring/summer 2013 show, Jessie began her own jewelry brand, known initially as Jessie Dib; and now as The Dib Studio.
Since then, her work has been featured in Elle, Vogue Brazil, Vanity Fair, Forbes, Belle, and Cosmopolitan and worn by A-listers such as Tyra Banks on America’s Next Top Model, Noel Wells on Infinity Baby, and Manu Manzo on her music video. Her work has also been heavily supported by loyal customers who love the modern, minimal aesthetic that connects them with other fellow Dibbsters.
Jessie is the CEO and Head Designer at The Dib Studio. Furthermore, she is the VP & Director of Content Publishing Technology at Atomic. NYC, a software engineering company that focuses on building software for education and publishing, and a co-founder and VP of RA+RE, an all-female record label and clothing line based in Paris. She is an entrepreneur who pushes boundaries and lives to connect people via her designs.
Since 2020 Jessie has joined forces with her father, mother, brother, and husband to bring collective energy and creativity to The Dib Studio, producing DIB jewelry and objects for their customers as a family.
Alright, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall, and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
It has not been a smooth road. We have worked hard for the past 12 years to keep this business going, it has been a lot of financial and time investment, but we love doing it. Sometimes the path is not smooth, and the days are grey, but our ability to build community and connect people no matter the distance through our unique designs keeps us motivated to keep going. It’s also our passion and dream to share our vision with the world, and we will continue working for it daily.
Being a small family business with different lives spread out in the world does not make it easy to build and create promptly as we would like to. I often wish we could all live in the same town or at least the next town to be close enough to each other as a family and a business to be able to pick up the phone and say I have this idea; I’m coming over to work on it. This ability to work together is worth gold to us, and we try to take advantage of every second we are together to do this, but sometimes it’s not enough and it presents its own set of challenges, but we find ways to overcome them, and with all the technology and tools available in this day we can work together but separate from a far.
As you know, we’re big fans of you and your work. For our readers who might not be as familiar, what can you tell them about what you do?
The Dib Studio is a Latina-owned, family design studio founded in 2012 by Jessie Dib. It began as a father-daughter duo developing one-of-a-kind wearable art jewelry pieces. Since then, it has evolved into a family affair where each member plays a vital part in designing, prototyping, developing, and delivering DIB jewelry and home objects—based in the USA with studio workshops in North Carolina, Laguna Hills, and Caracas.
As a family, we design and work together to offer quality contemporary jewelry and objects with a minimal & geometric aesthetic. The Dib Studio’s advanced modern design allows it to establish pieces capable of evolving from jewelry to an object or an installation in seconds. Its circular product evolution can transform a space or an outfit, but most importantly, it allows people to connect and express themselves without boundaries. When you buy a DIB, you buy a cutting-edge design that looks bold and feels right, a day-to-day statement, and a unique and fresh way to do fashion, art, and interior design from the same starting point.
At The Dib Studio, as a family, we focus on creating experiences that encourage anyone to feel more in tune with themselves, their style, and their space. For this reason, DIB’s principle, beyond designing, is connecting people and developing experiences, always presenting itself as a whole and not only as a product.
Our most significant accomplishments to this date have been putting all our effort into our passion. There is nothing better than saying we have worked hard for our dreams. We have gained a loyal customer base because of our love and passion for it. They have told us stories of being stopped in the middle of the street and asked if they were wearing a “DIB.” Thanks to our designs, we have connected people. Those stories make us proud and inspired to keep doing what we are doing.
Since 2012 The Dibs Studio’s dream has been to influence style, connect people and develop experiences through their bold, minimal, and geometric design approach. This year the brand is celebrating 10 years since it launched in 2012. With this celebration comes a re-birth of the brand, returning to the essence of when it started, that urban, street, modern, underground, and unisex vibe that allows its customers to express themselves without limitations.
Known for its iconic modern and geometric “DIB” shapes, The Dib Studio delivers contemporary and timeless jewelry and home objects. Its OG collection, “This Is A Dib,” features some of the top original jewelry DIB designs known for their boldness and mix of materials such as acrylic and fine metals. Angles, geometry, and conscious messages are part of what you will see in these designs, also showing an edge to them with studs, rubber, and thick chains. In a true DIB manner, each piece is handmade and crafted to order by a member of the Dib Family. This re-birth campaign celebrating 10 years of triumphs brings focus to what DIB truly is, from its shape to its meaning and values. DIB is the family’s last name originating from Lebanon, and yes, it is only 3 letters. “With the DIBs re-birth, we aspire to continue building community, connecting people, and inspiring diversity through modern design and brand culture, because good design creates harmony around us.” – Jessie Dib.
We’re always looking for the lessons that can be learned in any situation, including tragic ones like the Covid-19 crisis. Are there any lessons you’ve learned that you can share?
When COVID happened, we saw an opportunity to learn where the business was and how to improve on the areas that did not grant us the imagined success at that time. We started by re-designing the brand and releasing a whole new website. We launched a new product to read and understand our customers. We worked on more custom-made orders than usual and even offered jewelry cleaning as a service. We tested different approaches to get our customers back, reach new ones, and stay afloat. We even reached out to friends and family to help place our products within their stores or platforms. This help allowed us to grow last year in many ways, even revenue that we were not expecting given our situation. Covid taught us to look within, work harder, and not give up even in hard times.
Pricing:
- We categorize our Dibs into 4 categories:
- Street: This one includes only Dibs made from Acrylic and range in price from $40-$190
- Core: This one includes only Dibs that are made in other materials that are not Acrylics, such as precious metals and wood and range in price from $70- $250
- Distinct: This category encompasses a mix between street and core, mixing acrylics with other materials, and ranges in price from $250- $400
- Pedro’s Dibs: This is a very special category where each item is a work of art created 100% by my father’s hands; it’s a surprise category because you never know what you will get from Pedro, the artist, with each piece being one-of-a-kind. . The prices range from $300-$1500 or more depending on the work of art created.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://thedibstudio.com/
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/thedibstudio/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/thedibstudio
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCMN9NKbi4ae3_c_-pGcdvFw
- Other: https://www.tiktok.com/@thedibstudio
Image Credits
@genesiscabreraphoto
@dianamolinasosa
@fainmami
@____bric
@instataniam
@janistheboston
@camarillolife
@daniafabiana
@vivaracho._
@burnerwong
@themarianamontoya
@richujueta
@lelagoonstyling
@planefckntarium
@_scannone
@shotos_photostudio
@vikocarsson
@thefroomagency
@ikorma
@andreavaamonde
@oktulio
@dibkorma
@thedibstudio
