shopGAVIN: Designer Showcase: Leona

Tuesday, March 27, 2012

Designer Showcase: Leona

Lauren Leonard is the creative mind behind Leona. Her entrepreneurial spirit and adoration for fashion were recognized at an early age. She had an intuitive eye for fashion trend forecasting and loved to inform her family and friends of the next big fashion movement long before it appeared in stores. At 16, she began working in luxury fashion boutiques and quickly became a women’s buyer. In college she decided to further pursue her fascination with fashion, and eventually she made the move from her deep southern roots to the bustling streets of New York City. While working in New York, her confidence in her vision grew as she excelled in the world of design.

Lauren returned to the South determined to take her experience and passion and evolve them into her very own contemporary luxury line, Leona. A true forerunner in the industry, she purposefully branded her company from within the Southeast. Leona is redefining the term southern belle with fashion girls from Manhattan to Tokyo. Every piece of Leona achieves the perfect balance of whimsical detailing and sophisticated silhouette. Wearing Leona means winning the adoration of your boyfriend’s parents and making him swoon all in one dress; the perfect balance of charm and allure. Lauren realizes the Leona look with fanciful custom prints and the very best in luxurious fabrications.

Since Leona's debut in the spring of 2008, it has quickly gained a faithful following and is sold at more than a hundred of the most discerning and renowned retailers internationally. With celebrity fans like Taylor Swift and Giuliana Rancic, sightings in Lucky, Elle and People magazines, and hit television shows Gossip Girl and 90210, Leona is becoming one of the fastest growing contemporary labels in fashion today! Lauren was recognized as the Young Entrepreneur of the Year from the University of Alabama in 2008, and as one of Apex Society's Atlanta's top 30 under 30 for accomplishment in business in 2009. The Leona love continues to spread across the world, as Lauren creates from her studio in Nashville TN.