Beyoncé Giselle Knowles-Carter!? No need to adjust the screen, that was Beyoncé alongside Solange and Tina Knowles in the front row of Luar, lighting up Brooklyn. Fresh off debuting “Renaissance Act II” at Sunday's Super Bowl, Beyoncé appeared on Raúl López's fall runway as an aunt, taking in the collection and watching Solange's son, Daniel “Julez” Smith Jr., walk the runway . If you're one of those keeping track of celebrity sightings at NYFW, Lopez has cleared the board, winning the week with the pandemonium (and social media firestorm) that erupted upon his arrival.
Now to the catwalk: Remember the metrosexual? It was the American Dialect Society's word of the year in 2003, with roots in the 1990s. Merriam Webster defined it as a generally urban heterosexual man given to improving his personal appearance through careful grooming, beauty treatments, and fashionable clothing. . “The metrosexual is back,” López said firmly in a preview of his collection. He considered his collection Fallen “Deceptionista” and the Subway Man…well, in 2024 he's a “strayman,” he said. “A street gay, he does everything with girls but he doesn't sleep with them,” a theme, he explained, that goes back a long time, pointing to the image of a man with a powdered wig looking at himself in the mirror during the Rococo period. .
His taste for the flashy and cheeky was revealed with a new crop of bolder shoulder pieces, for example the black leather coat doubled over a monochrome tie and white shirt combination, the new ostrich-style Ana backpack and the wide-leg leather jumpsuit that Julez stomped down the runway, followed by a mixed media cardigan over leather pants on a female model, both giving off an exciting and cool fashion Frankenstein vibe – Luar canon at this point. An unexpected burgundy top that mimicked a scarf tied on its side was a very modern idea on a DIY scarf top. A slew of flexible knit dresses and bordered blouses followed. In fact, Lopez has taken her fabric game to new heights with Mongolian lamb shawls and lambskin quilted jackets in her signature sculptural oversized T shape, debuting a multi-season collaboration with lifestyle brand Moose Knuckles.
Understanding her business, she used the collection to introduce Luar Basics, a range of basic styles that she will update each season, her version of her customers' wardrobe needs. Think leggings and t-shirts, but done Luar style. “It's going to be huge,” she said bluntly. And the Ana bag, a social media star in its own right, arrived in a mix of new shapes and colors and was reinvented as a backpack.
It was their strongest collection yet. Lopez creates a fantasy, but she is always firmly planted in the Brooklyn in which she grew up. And NYFW is all the better for it; ask Beyoncé.
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