Hi-tech cornrows? Compression boot pants? Dominican designer Raul Lopez is a visionary because every season he shows us something we haven’t seen before. Ever. Like fall's "orthopedic sling-backs." A key member of New York’s downtown fashion family, Raul formerly designed for NYC label Hood by Air, with friend Shayne Oliver, before starting his own line in 2011. Luar Zepol subverts classic sports and casual wear pieces with boundary-pushing, extraterrestrial elegance. This season, the line lands at OC for the first time and the Fall/Winter 2013 collection is available exclusively at our New York store. See the pieces below in the premiere of an exclusive video by Theo Anthony and read my interview with Raul below.
Luar Zepol Fall/Winter 2013 is available exclusively at Opening Ceremony New York.
Alice Newell-Hanson: You once said, "Luar Zepol is a state of mind." How would you sum up that state of mind?
Raul Lopez: My mind works in mysterious ways. Fashion changes all the time, similarly to the way chapters in my life are ever-changing. The memories though will always remain and that is more than any book can ever teach me about what the Luar Zepol vision should be.
What was your inspiration for Fall/Winter 2013, and how did it translate into the pieces?
It's a real fascinating, but sad, story. A close and dear friend of mine was going through chemotherapy. When I visited him I would see doctors performing X-rays on patients. They wore these mind-blowing aprons and suits to perform the radiation! The suits had paneling on them with ruched details that created these god-loving cuts and silhouettes—just breathtaking. As you see in the fall collection, there were multiple panels alongside ruched details, mimicking the lead aprons used in the X-ray lab.
Can you talk more about the prints you designed with Romina Cenisio?
Can I start off by saying that Romina Cenisio is like an angel sent from Graphic Design Heaven? Just talented! We wanted to do a print that represented X-ray and body scanning but not so literally. My friend's body scan came to mind and I called Romina to hear her thoughts about it. She said, "Give me a day or two and I'll conjure something up." The next day, she e-mailed me this image of clustered light bulbs and another of this beautiful grid face and I was speechless!
You grew up in Brooklyn but have Dominican roots. How much are you influenced by what you see on trips back to the Dominican Republic? How would you describe the way people dress there?
Where to start! In the Dominican Republic, a developing country, it's usually hard for people to buy clothing. They look for economy, they turn to thrift markets, which the kids call "MACY'S"! LOL. You see the boys buying women's pieces and, in some cool radical way, converting them into menswear. This is definitely what Luar Zepol is all about!
How much are you inspired by Brooklyn?
I was born and raised in Williamsburg, Brooklyn, so I saw the transformation from when it was drugs and prostitution on the streets of Kent Avenue to what it is now. The morphing of the community is almost like a transgender going from one phase to the next. It's a huge inspiration to see the urban community meeting the cultural art clash that exists there now.
I loved the futuristic cornrows (the "tech rows") at the show. With Luar Zepol are you always looking towards technology and the future?
The cornrows were really an interpretation of the wires connected to my fri
Luar Zepol Fall/Winter 2013 is available exclusively at Opening Ceremony New York.
Alice Newell-Hanson: You once said, "Luar Zepol is a state of mind." How would you sum up that state of mind?
Raul Lopez: My mind works in mysterious ways. Fashion changes all the time, similarly to the way chapters in my life are ever-changing. The memories though will always remain and that is more than any book can ever teach me about what the Luar Zepol vision should be.
What was your inspiration for Fall/Winter 2013, and how did it translate into the pieces?
It's a real fascinating, but sad, story. A close and dear friend of mine was going through chemotherapy. When I visited him I would see doctors performing X-rays on patients. They wore these mind-blowing aprons and suits to perform the radiation! The suits had paneling on them with ruched details that created these god-loving cuts and silhouettes—just breathtaking. As you see in the fall collection, there were multiple panels alongside ruched details, mimicking the lead aprons used in the X-ray lab.
Can you talk more about the prints you designed with Romina Cenisio?
Can I start off by saying that Romina Cenisio is like an angel sent from Graphic Design Heaven? Just talented! We wanted to do a print that represented X-ray and body scanning but not so literally. My friend's body scan came to mind and I called Romina to hear her thoughts about it. She said, "Give me a day or two and I'll conjure something up." The next day, she e-mailed me this image of clustered light bulbs and another of this beautiful grid face and I was speechless!
You grew up in Brooklyn but have Dominican roots. How much are you influenced by what you see on trips back to the Dominican Republic? How would you describe the way people dress there?
Where to start! In the Dominican Republic, a developing country, it's usually hard for people to buy clothing. They look for economy, they turn to thrift markets, which the kids call "MACY'S"! LOL. You see the boys buying women's pieces and, in some cool radical way, converting them into menswear. This is definitely what Luar Zepol is all about!
How much are you inspired by Brooklyn?
I was born and raised in Williamsburg, Brooklyn, so I saw the transformation from when it was drugs and prostitution on the streets of Kent Avenue to what it is now. The morphing of the community is almost like a transgender going from one phase to the next. It's a huge inspiration to see the urban community meeting the cultural art clash that exists there now.
I loved the futuristic cornrows (the "tech rows") at the show. With Luar Zepol are you always looking towards technology and the future?
The cornrows were really an interpretation of the wires connected to my fri