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Reem Acra


Reem Acra (Arabic: ريم عكرة) is a fashion designer born in Beirut, Lebanon, known for her eponymous bridal gown line and her ready-to-wear collection.

Reem Acra studied at the American University of Beirut Medical Center, where her parents both worked. Her mother, Nadia, worked in the family medicine department, and her father, Aftim, was a prominent and distinguished academic, professor, public health expert, and an amber collector. She grew up with three brothers, Michael, Max, and Sari, in Beirut.

While a teenager, she joined the fashion club at the American University in Beirut where she graduated in 1982 with a business degree. She held a fashion show in June 1982 that attracted 2,000 people. In 1986, she graduated magna cum laude from the Fashion Institute of Technology in New York and won the Fashion Design Department’s award for her year. After graduating from FIT, Acra studied at the École Supérieure des Arts et Techniques de la Mode design school in Paris.

Acra left Beirut in 1983, relocating to New York City, during the peak of the Lebanese Civil War.

After her studies at ESMOD in Paris, Acra took mainstream fashion design positions in Hong Kong and Taiwan. At the age of 25 she was overseeing a $30 million project, but left after seven years to start her own line in New York.

Acra worked as a luxury interior designer for three years before starting her own line.

Acra started her company in 1997 as a bridal line, after designing a dress for a friend's wedding in three weeks, on a bet that if she could meet the deadline, her friend, would go through with the wedding, set in Paris at the Hôtel de Crillon. Acra took a photograph of the dress and distributed it to the media, including The New York Times, which published the photograph. She held her first fashion show in 1999.

Soon after, she bought $20,000 in fabric with her American Express card, pitched designs to Saks Fifth Avenue and Kleinfeld, and received an order for thirty dresses. She then worked with 89-year-old Max Kane, who owned a factory on 39th Street in Manhattan's Hell's Kitchen. Acra credits her early success with Kane's mentoring and support. After working with Kane, Acra expanded her business to additional factories and opened her own production centers. Her brand expanded to include evening-gowns in 2003 and a ready-to-wear collection in 2008. Her designs are carried in more than 150 retailers around the world.


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