Luxe NYC bridal designer Reem Acra, whose gauzy creations are beloved by celebs like Taylor Swift, won a whopping $38.7 million judgment — more than a decade after smoke from a nearby fire ruined more than 2,000 dresses in her Midtown studio.
A Manhattan judge ordered troubled real estate developer the Chetrit Group to make the hefty payment in June following nine years of litigation over the March 2014 blaze in a building the company had purchased and was renovating.
Beyonce, actress Olivia Wilde, and First Ladies Melania Trump and Jill Biden have all worn Acra’s creations. The bridal gowns can range in price from $2,500 to $110,000.
The blaze caused “heavy smoke and [a] soot kind of smell” to envelop Acra’s seventh-floor studio, and the fabric and gowns were deemed a “total loss,” an expert told the court.
The famed designer also lost “significant work in progress, historical patterns, hundreds of new pairs of shoes, expensive handmade imported embroidery, intricate handmade bridal veils, accessories and vintage dresses,” along with “thousands of yards of specialty cloth,” legal papers showed.
In a July 2 court filing, the designer noted Chetrit Group founder Joseph Chetrit, who had defaulted in the case, has ignored the judgment and cited “a genuine urgency” to having the payout enforced in light of the developer facing “many large creditors and . . . a significant volume of foreclosure and commercial litigation.”
The Chetrit Group did not respond to a message seeking comment.
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