The modern princess: interview with the designer Reem Acra
The amazing fabrics, the incredible embellishments, the cool cut jackets and the big smile of designer Reem Acra presenting her new Fall/Winter 2017/2018 collection: these were the perfect reasons that the rainiest morning at Paris Fashion Week looked, at the end, so beautiful. “We used to do runway in New York, at Fashion Week. But this year we have decided that the world is changing, so we should move. And we have thought to do this presentation of Fall/Winter 2017/2018 collection of Reem Acra here, in Paris, so that people could see and touch and feel all the pieces, all the fabrics”, Reem Acra said to me, when we met at Ritz Paris.
Acra started her namesake business in 1997 with a bridal collection before adding eveningwear six years laters. A native of Beirut, the designer has also lived in Paris and Hong Kong. She is known for her refined, often intricately crafted eveningwear that borrows from a diverse range of influences.
For this Fall/Winter 2017/2018 collection, she offered us a strong, modern, global nomad, with touch of Edwardian style. The beautiful dresses, jackets, bronze bombers, asymmetrical peplums and skirts are fully decorated with floral motifs, crystals and embroidery. Plus: tops “tattooed” with heart, eye, and Fatima hand motifs. “This is what we call hand of Fatima. And it is a good luck hand”, explained the designer to me. “I tried to represent here my own world. And this is what I love: the colours, the textures, the combination of the fabrics.”
The 65 looks of the Fall/Winter 2017/2018 collection are entirely the Reem Acra dream. “I wanted to drape everything myself, and that is how the models appeared for this collection. For me, sometimes it takes two minutes to make the draped for a new dress. Than I give the dress to the atelier workers and I say it is done, you just have to sew it. And that is the reason I say that this collection is so close to me, because I did it myself. And it was easy for me”, she smiled at me when I asked her about the moodboard of the collection. “This collection is all about layering. Look at this outfit: it has four different layers, interchangeable. There is the skirt, the jacket, the top, the belt. And you can combine all the pieces together”, said the designer.
But how do you accessorise these pieces, rich embellished, in a everyday look, I asked Reem Acra. “For me it is just enough to take this jacket, in a beautiful jacquard, put a pair of jeans and some nice shoes and I am ready to go”, she smiled. And I’ve just realised that she is perfectly right. And that I just needed the dark plum crystal covered jacket to conquer the world. And to face the rain. https://www.reemacra.com
Photography: www.dreamingof.net, Reem Acra, Instagram of Reem Acra
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