Raúl Lopez brought Luar Spring Summer 2027 to Flushing Meadows Corona Park in Queens, staging the show beneath the 120-foot-wide Unisphere. The location placed the collection close to Flushing High School, where Lopez once studied, and Corona, where his family lived. Photographer Gabby Agustin captured the backstage atmosphere exclusively for DSCENE Magazine.
BACKSTAGE
Titled Christopher Street Columbus, the collection connected two references central to Lopez’s history. Christopher Street points to the queer New York spaces where he came of age, while Christopher Columbus carries the history of colonization tied to Lopez’s Dominican background. Lopez described the collection as an act of reclamation, using dress as a way to revisit ideas of identity, survival and rebellion.
The clothes drew from 15th- and 16th-century silhouettes through a distinctly Luar lens. Monumental shoulders appeared throughout, joined by full breeches, narrow jackets, spiral sleeves, elongated trousers and severe tailoring.
Textiles carried much of the collection’s depth. Lopez developed custom lace in Portugal and treated it to appear aged. Cacao became another major reference after he photographed pods in the Dominican Republic. Those images appeared on silk, while jacquards referenced the fruit’s decay. Brown-and-black striped velvet, dyed lace, moiré and painterly fabrics extended the palette and surface treatment.
The show also introduced a surreal narrative around vampires imagined as passengers on Columbus’s voyage. Models with chalk-white faces appeared throughout the lineup, giving the historical references a theatrical edge without overtaking the clothes. Accessories remained central to the Luar vocabulary. New bags appeared alongside collaborations with MCM, Kenner and Cadbury. Ripped gloves exposed jeweled fingers, drawing from a practice Lopez traced to the 1500s, while curled ostrich feathers added volume and movement.
The setting gave the show another layer of meaning. Lopez placed the runway in a public park and allowed people outside the official guest area to watch from nearby benches. For Spring Summer 2027, Luar used Queens as more than a location. Lopez returned to a place tied to his own history and built a collection around memory, colonization, queer identity and dress, while keeping the visual language firmly rooted in the house he has created.
