Co-Founder & Lead Designer · Lufkin Studio
Celeste Green
She sewed her first full garment at nine, for a 4-H fashion show. She now runs that same 4-H program — and most of the business behind Babs Boutique.
Portrait by Davenport Photography
A 4-H sewist who
never really stopped.
Celeste Green is a lifelong sewist who began working with fabric before age five and constructed her first full garment at age nine for a 4-H fashion show. By sixteen, she had earned the Make It With Wool national scholarship with a tailored wool suit featuring a full skirt. Quilting, hand embroidery, and costuming were part of the formative experiences that shaped her path toward youth leadership, couture construction, and community-centered design.
She now leads the same 4-H program that introduced her to garment making, mentoring young creators while designing and constructing custom pageant dresses for her girls and for regional competitors. As co-designer of Heike & Liz/Babs Boutique, Celeste works alongside Liz Monroy, with whom she earned the NYFW Beauty It’s Everywhere Designer of the Year Award — a recognition of their craftsmanship and their presence within youth pageantry and emerging-designer circles.
Both Babs and Enchanté designs are available at the Lufkin Babs Boutique, located inside Besos Boutique at 110 S. First Street. The work reflects a blend of technical construction, classic silhouettes, and youth-focused creativity — continuing the legacy she began as a young 4-H sewist and now passes on to the next generation.
Getting the arts
to rural kids.
Ask Celeste what she is proudest of and she does not say a garment. She says expanding hands-on arts and skill-building programs into underserved rural areas — accessible creative programs, supply donation drives, and community workshops brought directly to children who have no local access to the arts.
That work runs on funding she goes and finds: local partnerships, educational outreach, 4-H integration, and rural arts initiatives built to keep creative opportunities within reach of every family, not just the ones near a city.
As Youth Program Director for Angelina County 4-H, she has developed and led six-class modules in parliamentary procedure, wildlife, entomology and water science — alongside the community art and sewing workshops.
A steadier hand
than most.
Before couture, Celeste competed internationally in precision rifle. She was an NCAA All-American and team captain at Texas Christian University, a member of the 2002 ISSF World Championships team, and a silver medalist at the Championships of the Americas. In 2025 she shot for the Brock Comer Trophy team at the British National Championships.
She received Congressional appointments to West Point, and in 2013 was awarded the Molly Pitcher Award by the 3rd Battalion, 1st Infantry Regiment for her work leading a Family Readiness Group.
It is not as far from a sewing table as it sounds. Both are patience, both are millimeters, and both are practiced long after anyone else would call it good enough.
Recognition
2026
Top Five Finalist — Children’s Designer of the Year
Runway 7, New York Fashion Week
2025
Designer of the Year
Beauty It’s Everywhere Awards, NYFW — with Liz Monroy
2024
Humanitarian of the Year
Beauty It’s Everywhere Awards, NYFW
1999
First Design Award
For an original wool suit, designed and tailored at fifteen
Babs Boutique has two founders.
Six hundred miles west, in El Paso, Liz Monroy runs the other studio — and has been sewing since she was eight.