With her 2021 Bridal Couture collection, Reem Acra designed her biggest, and most magical collection to date. Its name, Love and Dreem, is an ode to the designer and brand’s creative root – and the CFDA member teamed up with longtime collaborator Ruvén Afanador for a stunning campaign to bring her designs to life.

The designer delivered the collection with pioneering technology via a collaboration with Snapchat.

Acra turned to AR technology to help brides all over the world try a Reem Acra dress from the comfort of their own home using Snapchat to record their session, and providing them with the ability to share it with friends and family. Brides are even be able to book an actual session with the Reem Acra studio directly from the app to make the augmented experience a reality.

Audiences were able to experience the digital debut on the Reem Acra Instagram page, and those in New York could witness the campaign images take over the Nasdaq billboard in Times Square.

We caught up with the designer to hear more about her inspiration behind this debut. Read below!

Where did you start for this season? 

Back during the middle of COVID, I contacted Ruven and told him I wanted to go back to my roots and bring my own DNA back in the way I always felt I would like to represent myself. He was all excited; we had great collaborations in the past and he said, ”let’s do it Reem!“ So we planned it and in November we did the shoot, but before then I decided on my own theme of international women, and when I told him, he was even more excited.

Then I started to do my own collage of how each country would be represented. I did my own research, styling, and art direction of every photo and how it would look, then showed this to Ruven. We planned the shoot and it was exactly how we wanted it. It was magical. Whether it’s the bridal world or the world in general, it needs something exaggerated and extraordinary with a nod to cultures.

Many designers have taken a more casual approach to their collections as of recently, but you seemed to go against that this season. 

I went in the opposite direction. It’s about celebrating women and the union of two people. I feel all these young beautiful girls suffered for a whole year trying to figure out how to date, how to get married…all of that…and I wanted to show them there is still hope and you can still dream. This is my biggest collection ever. Besides what you see in the photos, the rest of the collection is pretty elaborate. There’s a dress for everybody and at every price point. Everything you can think of, we have.

How did you manage to pull this off logistically, given restrictions and everyone working remotely? 

We started early knowing that we had to manage…whether with the photoshoot or that it took longer to get fabrics and embroideries. But somehow everything worked together. We had a great team that also fell in love with the collection and how we constructed it. It was just a labor of love. Yes, there’s COVID and yes, we are wearing our double masks and can barely breathe, but we had to do what we had to do.

How do you think the bridal industry has changed?

I’m not going to count this year. I’m going to erase it. It;s gone from my mind! I have to always think about the future, because if I think about today, I won’t do anything! So for me, I’m thinking about the future and with brides I have to think ahead of time – because it takes a while to make the dress. So I’m thinking about what’s going to happen when everything opens up. I think the brides want it all, and I have it all! There is something for everybody. It’s all about the future, it’s not about today.

How did the Snapchat collaboration come about? 

We all know digital is the future as well. As I’m thinking of this collection as the future of brides… we are thinking during COVID, ”What is the digital aspect of things?“ It’s too early to tell for fashion, and nobody has done this before. I wanted to try something new and go outside the realm of fashion. I thought Snapchat would be a great idea, and the minute we approached them, they also felt excited about it – even before they saw the visuals of the collection, they loved the idea. Once they saw the actual photos, , they felt ”wow; that’s out there and going to be a great collaboration.”

You’re a pioneer in the space. Were there any challenges along with that, given AR is such a new territory for the world of fashion? 

With everything there is challenges, but I thought I’m going to think about this as a new experience; it’s not going to be what you see in two or three years. And I had to accept it. That this is just the beginning, and I’m the first one doing it, and this is capacity of how we do it today. It a nice challenge, and I think it’s fun to see what the future is going to start looking like.

I also wanted to ask about your relationship with Ruven. How would you describe your relationship and what does he mean to you? 

Well, I like to be connected to the people from the past at all times. I still have my friends from Kindergarten. The first photoshoot was from Ruven, and I kept saying I want to go back to that first emotion. During COVID, we all needed that emotional kind of connection. And I called him and said I need emotion. I need to connect to my customers, and I wanted them to feel connected to me through the emotions we create together. I asked him if I needed to surround myself with people and he said, “no, you and I can do it alone.” It was just me and him. I’d create something and show him after I made each one, and we connected via text message until the photoshoot date.

I’m appreciative of what he’s done for me in the past, and I wanted to regenerate that old experience.

I understood you also took over the NASDAQ billboard in Times Square. Were you able to check it out and what was that experience like? 

I did! I went last Saturday. That’s how I knew the city was getting back to normal. On Saturday, I spent some time walking around and feeling the vibes of the city and stopped and had a coffee and dinner, and went to Times Square to take videos and photos. It was nice to see something like this on NASDAQ. I have to say it was very exciting.

— With contributions from Aldo Araujo

Discover Reem Acra here.