Backstage at Luar's Fall 2024 Show

Luar has always been a unisex brand, exploring gender fluidity with a mix of luxury and indigenous culture. This stems from Raul’s life as a Dominican New Yorker, taking inspiration from the friends he had around him growing up. Luar has also always been a family unit: From the makeup chair to the after party DJs, every team member is a part of a connected community of QTPOC.

Last year at a seminar, the designer spoke about how they were raised adjacent to the ballroom scene and was known as “the gay boy holding the Femme Queens’ bags at the club.” He loves the fantasy, being able to walk into a club at night with a cunt outfit and feeling powerful in your body. As a nonbinary person myself, I know the power fashion has for human expression and how being able to flip back and forth in your masculine and feminine energy is more of a spiritual practice than a trend.

Raul told PAPER that this season was inspired by 2000s mextrosexuals, exploring masculinity through a heightened style and groomed lens. Most of the models had trims on their pieces that sculpted them in a more masculine way, which was a super refreshing take on “machismos” in styling, finished with school boy gelled hair, long banjee hair extensions and the latest addition to the Starface Hydro-Star family, "Earth Star." Something about seeing a femme presenting model in an oversized, yet snatched, blazer pumping down the runway in heels with a masculine contoured jaw was so juicy. Models’ hands were almost weighed down by larger-than-life stiletto nails, featuring paintings from cathedrals and gold-encrusted Luar plates. Luxurious beige furs and glossy cherry leathers made for some stunning fall palettes.

Raul is no stranger to a stunt, but the biggest stunt of all was Beyoncé taking a seat only seconds before the show begins. We salute the Luar team. In an industry where drama was dying, thank God we have Raul Lopez.

Photography: Maxwell Vice