Hosted by Faurschou in Greenpoint, Brooklyn, designer Raul Lopez debuted LUAR’s Autumn/Winter 2023 collection on February 15, closing out New York Fashion Week. Coming off of Lopez’s big win at the 2022 CFDA Fashion Awards where he was named American Accessory Designer of the Year, the show was met with a packed crowd inside and out, as fans of the label swarmed the doors.

A first-generation American of Dominican descent, Lopez’s work draws from his personal history, which geographically sits at the intersection of New York City and the Dominican Republic. For this show, he explored calle pro elegante, or “street elegance” in Spanish.

Noting the mafiosas who ran his community of South Williamsburg growing up, Lopez explained that this collection was inspired by the women who lived among such men, and specifically the ways in which those women were able to command respect. They found power through “the astuteness they had cultivated” as opposed to force. They were detail-oriented, fluid, and firm—the embodiment of street elegance.

The collection featured sequins, patent leather, feathers, and exceedingly broad shoulders, proving that nothing is “too much” for Lopez.

Likewise, with male-bodied models walking the runways in skirts and female-bodied models in suits, Lopez secured LUAR’s spot as a truly modern brand.