Designer Lewis Remele makes the move from Kenwood Parkway to New York runway.

With the spotlight shining brighter and brighter on Minneapolis fashion, it’s no suprise that the latest “it” designer on the East Coast hails from Kenwood. Twenty-two-year-old Lewis Remele, who grew up on Lake of the Isles and went to The Blake School, recently launched his own private label line, Lewis Albert, while attending Harvard as an art history and architecture major. He’s now dressing fashion-conscious women in timeless day-to-evening separates and romantic, whimsical evening gowns.

In his first year designing, Remele not only had his first show—in Boston, where he debuted his spring 2006 line—but he’ll also have a show during New York’s fashion week this March. MAO PR—a fashion PR firm that has done shows for Rebecca Taylor and Heatherette, among others—is producing the show, which will include about thirty looks from the Lewis Albert fall 2006 collection. Remele’s next goal—after graduating in June—is to jump into fashion full-time, and open a show room in NYC.

Remele, the son of Lewis and Connie Remele (he’s a lawyer, she’s the former owner of Connie’s in Uptown) was drawn to clothing design at a very young age. “I can remember fashioning dresses out of bed sheets and clothes from our costume chest for my friends,” he says. “I’ve been sketching and compiling design ideas in journals since I was nine or ten years old.”

Remele says he is inspired by favorite designers Alber Elbaz (for Lanvin), Charles James, Cristobal Balenciaga, and Elsa Schiaperelli. The Lewis Albert line is artistic, feminine, and inspired, yet wearable, and designed for women who want to mix and match his pieces (starting at $250) with their current wardrobe to develop their own look. Pieces include cashmere knits, blazers, cocktail dresses, gowns ($1,200-plus), and coats.

Remele’s spring and summer collections focused on “bold colors, deco ornamentation, and body-conscious, sumptuous silks.” For fall 2006, his designs are inspired by the Mitford sisters (controversial socialite siblings from England in the 1930s and ’40s). Remele says the collection is “an attempt to make an aesthetic statement during the most common of daily activities as well as extremely special occasions.”

Lewis Albert is available in the Twin Cities exclusively at Arafina. 952-925-1565