For a couple of seasons now, Luar is the finale New York Fashion Week show. It’s a good ending, one that leaves an impression of hope for the city’s contemporary fashion. This was Raul Lopez’s most streamlined and mature collection to date. The butter yellow boxy jacket that opened the show had rows of fully functional rouleau buttons that wrapped around the arms and could be unbuttoned to form a short sleeve jacket. It was worn with a matching pair of shorts that could be unbuttoned to become a panty, and white sheer hose – a mainstay of a certain church look for Caribbean women – and golden sandals. This opening look conveyed the rhythm of this collection, which was mostly about experiments with tailoring . A series of long tailored jackets with wide peak lapels appeared to be worn over draped skirts in the same fabric but were in fact all one piece – a fact that was only obvious as the models walked away and you noticed an elaborately draped back. It hinted at the tension Lopez was exploring – the wanting to move forward but getting pulled back by circumstances or by human temptation. Further pushing this point were the button-down shirts worn underneath the suit, in classic banker stripes, which featured an extra long collar that stood out against the neck – mirroring the motion of actually being pulled back by the neck.  Other standouts included the separates made from “crackle vinyl,” meant to mimic the cement floors that are typical in the houses in the Dominican Republic neighborhood where Luar had its show. It looked particularly glamorous on a shirt with that same rouleau button detail along the sleeve and the bodice, tucked into a high-waist mermaid skirt in a shade of warm cement gray, and a little subversive on a shirt in a cooler shade of gray tucked into a pleated skort and worn with a long white tie. “I think this season I was more refined with the hand embroideries, the fabrics, the suiting, the crepes… I just feel like I’m evolving into my true self,” Lopez said. “This marks the 10th year that I do an actual runway show, and I was thinking how all this hustling and bustling really paid off, because it’s such a beautiful thing to be a New Yorker and be recognized in the city. And it kind of sets the tone of having to show out when I do a show.” He paused for a second, “but who knows what next season will bring? Maybe I’ll go back to being crazy.”

Collage by Edward Kanarecki.
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