About Us – LouLouK

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The Oriental Dress House is a family-owned business created by Intisar Al Farkh Khalifeh with a dual purpose: First, to empower women in refugee camps by providing them with a means of livelihood and second, to preserve the heritage of traditional embroidery and popularize it among modern-day Arab women.

Intisar launched the business in 1984 after procuring patterns from Vogue to adapt traditional embroidered ‘thobes’ into more professional and flexible attire and commissioning a few women in the refugee camps to do the embroidery. In 2000, her daughter, Rula Khalifeh, joined the business under the name loulouk, bringing her own sense of fashion and a modern twist to traditional clothing.

Today, the Oriental Dress House/loulouk designs have gained regional recognition and count many royalty and celebrities from the area among their long-term clientele. More importantly, they continue to provide refugee women with the skills and means to support their families, currently employing over 200 women in various refugee camps.

Intisar Al Farkh Khalifeh

Born in Jaffa, Intisar has a background in education and spent many years working as a teacher. In the early 1980s, she decided to pursue her interest in fashion and took several design courses in both Italy and France. She was searching for a way to make traditional Arab embroidery wearable for women of all ages. Her hope was to preserve what she viewed as a dying art and to inspire women to take pride in their heritage. After working with different charity organizations in refugee camps, Intisar felt that the women there could benefit greatly from learning a craft that would contribute to their livelihood. She opened the Oriental Dress House in 1984 combining her desire to empower refugee women with her love of fashion.

Rula Khalifeh

After achieving a bachelor’s degree in Business Administration from Pepperdine University, Rula decided to pursue her hobby of fashion design by continuing in her mother’s path. In line with her mother’s aspiration to popularize traditional clothing, Rula used elements of Arab heritage in unique modern pieces that appealed to a wider range of clients, creating her chic brand loulouk.