LUAR FW23 Reflects a Brooklyn Boy's Big Dreams
Just 12 hours after closing New York Fashion Week, designer Raul Lopez was named a 2023 LVMH Prize semifinalist.
On Wednesday evening, New York Fashion Week came to a triumphant conclusion inside Brooklyn’s contemporary art space, the Farschou New York gallery. There, fashion week showgoers anxiously crowded the Greenpoint venue’s door, eager to claim their seat inside for LUAR’s Fall/Winter 2023 show. Governed by Raul Lopez, last year’s CFDA fashion award winner for American Accessory Design, the collection was galvanized by the people of Williamsburg, where the designer spent his childhood years. Fittingly, the venue was a quick 15-minute walk away from the apartment he grew up in.
Titled “Calle pero elegante,” or “street but elegant,” the collection opened with a double-breasted, gray wool gown fronting regal gold buttons and dramatically enlarged shoulders. Where last season’s oversized constructions symbolized insecurity, this season’s iterations were confidence-inducing. Trailing behind, a brown-colored dress carried the same poised sentiment with identical tailoring, and a thick coat in a mirrored tone pumped volume into its arms.
Lopez collaborated with Saga Furs on a selection of mink coats. Some were scribbled with the Luar logo in contrasting colors, while others remained classic, like look 6’s black maxi. A few were experimental, including one that cocooned its wearer with wrapped-around layers and another, a bomber, that tapped a spectrum of colors.
Elsewhere, multi-toned technical jackets emerged, likely to perform well on a snow-capped mountain with high necks, firm button closures, blown-up sleeves and drawstring waists. A few flashed Luar embroidery front and center, while others carried a glistening letter “L” on a central clasp. Loungewear, on the other hand, was made elegant: under a grand top hat, look 18 paired a brown, quarter-zip sweater with matching loose-fitting trousers.
Belts, with statement “L” latches, were repurposed across models’ chests, locking arms from movement inside hard-shouldered button-down shirts. Similarly, thin leather straps provided additional closure on billowing coats. Accessories, of course, were collection heroes: the famous Ana bag waved hello in myriad glittering iterations, and several looks stomped down the runway with leather harnesses carrying wine glasses. Overall, it was a realization of Lopez’s glamorous childhood dreams, and it was a testament to the maturation of LUAR over the last 10 years.
Following the final carousel, Lopez made his rounds holding the hand of his young niece. In an ending that could not be more perfect, the designer was named a semifinalist for the LVMH Prize, just 12 hours after the show.
Take a look at LUAR’s Fall/Winter 2023 collection in the gallery above.
Elsewhere at New York Fashion Week, Thom Browne FW23 lets quintessential American fashion tell an intergalactic story.
