Three decades after escaping Lebanon’s Civil War to fulfill her dream of making it in New York fashion, Reem Acra’s client list reads like a who’s who of Hollywood’s A-list. Catherine Zeta-Jones, Angelina Jolie, Madonna, Halle Berry, Kate Hudson and Eva Longoria are just a few of the famous names who favor her luxuriously embellished eveningwear. From the world of music, country singer LeAnn Rimes got married in one her creations – a low-cut chiffon robe slashed to the thigh and embroidered with pearls – while singer-songwriter Taylor Swift chose a strapless Reem Acra wedding gown for one of her videos. Acra is proud of her achievements, explaining that is she is the only Middle Eastern woman to establish her own fashion house from scratch in New York. Now, with success firmly under her belt, she is turning her attention back to the Middle East to help kick-start a homegrown fashion industry.The designer is working on a plan for the region, although she stresses it is in its early stages. “There is no [fashion] industry there today. But is there an eagerness for it? Absolutely,” she told AFP in an interview in Paris. “I am getting involved. ... There is an eagerness in these countries; they want to expand, they want to be part of the fashion scene. Acra is far from the first international designer to return to her roots and push the industry in Lebanon, which has turned out some of today’s biggest names in the fashion world. Paris-based ready-to-wear designer Rabih Kayrouz has been the country’s most vocal proponent of mentorship within the industry. He was a co-founder of the incubator Starch Foundation, which gives talented young designers a yearlong fellowship of seminars, business experience and exposure. Elie Saab partnered with Lebanese American University to found its new fashion design major. Indeed Lebanon has one of the highest ratios of designers per capita in the world. Name any red carpet event, and Lebanese dominate the best-dressed lists with familiar names such as Saab, Zuhair Murad, Georges Chakra, Georges Hobeika and, of course, Acra herself. Regionally, Acra’s assessment of the industry is accurate. Fashion design is a fledgling industry in places like the Gulf and the Levant outside of Lebanon. Thanks to Dubai’s new push to be a world fashion capital, Acra is getting on board just as the region has taken an earnest interest in design.
