Luar Fall 2019

Raul Lopez was one of the few young designers breathing fresh life into New York Fashion Week this season. The Brooklyn born, Dominican designer and co-founder of Hood by Air, is head of LUAR, the post-gender, radical fashion house pushing the limits of street couture. The 2018 CFDA/Vogue Fashion Fund finalist presented his Fall 2019 RTW collection Wednesday afternoon, and proved once again that his brand stood strong and mighty in the fashion industry. The collection, inspired by the fearless, badass energy of the late 1990s/early 2000s female rap stars was taken to an even higher level by introducing silhouettes of the 1980s business woman. By mixing the two, the collection served powerful looks without compromising sex appeal, and defied gender binaries.

Models such as Jullian Culas took to the runway, stomping and swaying with sass in hairstyles that elevated the throwback vibe of the collection. Sporting spiky flipped out bangs that were all too popular back-in-the-day, the hair was made even more extra with the Luar logo embroidered into the bangs themselves.  The venue was packed and spirits were high as club beats blared and took us back 20 years in time.

On a technical note, we saw masterful tailoring—notably the asymmetrically draped top with the skin-baring side cutout—as well as more experimental pieces such as the half mini-skirt, half trouser look. The collection referenced archival silhouettes that have made Luar so successful, yet gave updated them with a modern twist with forward approaches in styling, textiles, and design: the tech jacket, presented two seasons prior in technical textiles was relaunched in shaved minks this season with the help of Saga Furs. To put it simply, we couldn’t get enough. Take a look at the collection for yourself in the gallery below.