F&W Style luxury handbag founder Alexandria Alli had no expectations when she attended the Atlanta edition of the popular Black Excellence Brunch back in February. Like the other guests, she was there to celebrate the new CBS soap opera Beyond the Gates —the first ever anchored by a Black family on network television in the genre’s nearly 80-year history. And though the soap is set in Washington D.C., it’s filmed right here in Atlanta.

Because that celebration was a week before Beyond the Gates premiered, when Alli met executive producer Sheila Ducksworth there, she thought at best she could place her bags in some of the episodes. She never imagined she would soon be working with the show’s Emmy-winning costume designer Jeresa Featherstone to help power the show’s popular storyline

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