Baton Rouge brand Love My Reality goes international with Milan Fashion Week show – [225]

Names like Fendi, Chanel, and Gucci may come to mind when thinking of fashion weeks, but Baton Rouge-based brand Love My Reality aims to make a name for itself at these events, too, by creating eye-catching pieces and showing them off on national and global runways.

A little over a year after its New York Fashion Week debut, designer and Love My Reality co-owner Crystal Lewis added another notch to her stylish belt by taking the brand to Italy for Milan Fashion Week last month. Lewis says Love My Reality was approached by a few reputable production companies and invited to participate in fashion weeks in London, New York, Milan, Dubai and Paris.

“Milan is like one of the fashion meccas,” Lewis says. “And you can tell. … Just to be in that environment was amazing.”Lewis admits that when thinking about participating in a fashion week this year, she wasn’t picturing an international stage like Milan. After some encouragement from her husband, who co-owns the brand with her, she decided to think big and go for it.

At the show, hosted at the historic Palazzo Serbelloni, Lewis showed off Love My Reality’s new Sweet Fire and Ice collection. The pieces were sultry yet elegant and featured metallic tones like silver, gold and rose gold. Lewis says the inspiration for the collection came to her during a celebration for Love My Reality’s storefront in Perkins Rowe.

“I had gotten some balloons to celebrate the one-year anniversary (of the store) and I ended up getting gold, rose gold and (metal-colored balloons),” she says. “When I saw it together, I was like, ‘That’s beautiful. I would love to do a collection like that.’”

The Sweet Fire and Ice designs leaned into that shiny color palette. Lewis says her goal was to create 10 looks that had an “ice princess-type feel with chrome tones.” In addition to having these metallic shades in the garments, the models also wore makeup and hairstyles to match, using chrome eye shadows, foil and other glittery details.

Lewis decided to bring loads of Baton Rouge flair to Milan, just like she did in New York City last year. Love My Reality brought a team of models, makeup artists, hair stylists and photographers from the Capital Region. Lewis says she picked different styles and silhouettes like body suits, dresses, rompers and capes to accentuate her models’ different body types.

Though everyone looked flawless on the runway, Lewis shares that there were a few snags along the way. It all began when her manufacturers sent garments that didn’t look like the designs she submitted. Lewis says she received pieces right before she left for Milan, and she and her team had to do some last-minute alterations abroad.

While traveling to Milan with multiple suitcases and carry-ons, she admits that she almost lost the bag containing her designs at an airport, too. She only realized the garments were missing when her AirTags notified her that they were at a different location.

“It was an experience,” she says. “I knew that it was going to be a lot, but the end result was (that) everything came together like I wanted it to. But it definitely was a journey just getting there and making sure that we could show up how we wanted to show up for Milan Fashion Week.”

Still, Lewis says the experience of going to Milan Fashion Week was like no other. In addition to the show, Lewis was able to play tourist and also used the beautiful city as a backdrop for a photo shoot of the runway-ready collection.

Now, just a few weeks after the show and whirlwind trip outside the country, Lewis is focused on relaxing, recouping and “riding the wave.”

When she’s not prepping for a big runway show or working to get her brand noticed on a larger scale, Lewis runs Love My Reality’s storefront in Perkins Rowe and creates designs for the brand that are both fashionable and professional, suited for busy women.

But Lewis is also thinking ahead about the brand’s future. She says she hasn’t thought about her next fashion week just yet but is open to new cities like London, Dubai and Paris. Her main goal is to bring the brand to its full potential and to gain more traction and interest.

“We’re just trying to make those connections and see what it looks like to get our pieces in some big department stores,” she says. “I would like to start taking a brand on the road. I would like to see our brand in Vegas. I’d like to see our brand in Beverly Hills. I’d like to see our brand in New York City.”

Love My Reality’s storefront is at 10156 Perkins Rowe, Suite 130. The boutique is open Tuesday through Saturday, 11 a.m.-7 p.m., and Sunday, noon-6 p.m. Check out Love My Reality’s website to shop collections and find out more about the local brand.