The inspirations that lead to Luar Zepol collections are always unconventional. For Fall/Winter 2013, designer Raul Lopez referenced a close friend's chemotherapy treatment. Last season, he channeled a utilitarian street kid from the Dominican Republic circa the year 4000. And for Luar Zepol Fall/Winter 2014, Raul summoned the type of weather that's currently chilling the country. "In 1994 there was a huge blizzard but the boys on my block didn't care," Raul, a Brooklyn native, recalled before the show. "They wanted to wear their best outfits even if there was ten feet of snow.”
Raul took this memory and fast forwarded it into a future urban dystopia. “The man of tomorrow is always going to be on the run. So I made a lot of stow pockets and a lot of muffs on the jackets. He’s not going to have time to go looking for gloves, so every garment should have everything included in one.” Light-up chokers and goggles are meant to guide the wearer through the storm, while earrings and necklaces with the Luar Zepol emblem dangling from them might serve as talismans to fight off blizzards. Futurism extended to fabrics: man-made materials dominated the collection, from faux fur to vinyl, nylon, and charmeuse. In the future, Raul reasons, perhaps there will be no genuine fur or leather. “I read this article about how in the year 2050 there will no longer be meat on this planet," he said.
To capture the full effect of boys stranded in the cold, a frosted eye was created by dabbing fake snow on the inside and outside corners of models' icy blue eyelids. Their eyelashes were then painted white and bits of the fake flurries were placed on the ends and flicked onto the cheekbones and chin. For a scraping-through-the-snow effect, fluffy puffs of cotton were applied to the nails. With the hair, Raul thought about those same boys on his street that used to bleach their tips. As if they had run out of the salon mid-process, models confidently donned rows of foil in their hair, while others wore weaving caps with white strands pulled through. The end result was like a tribe of Mortal Kombat characters battling bad weather instead of each other.
The tundra didn't stop with the hair and makeup. Blizzard sound effects opened the show, followed by Madonna’s “Frozen." The inclement weather then spilled out onto the runway where machines blew out heavy doses of synthetic snow onto the audience, which caused many to reach for their own coats to shield themselves from the storm.
Photos by James Parker | E-mail ONLINE@OPENINGCEREMONY.US to be notified when the FW14 collection arrives at OC!
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Raul took this memory and fast forwarded it into a future urban dystopia. “The man of tomorrow is always going to be on the run. So I made a lot of stow pockets and a lot of muffs on the jackets. He’s not going to have time to go looking for gloves, so every garment should have everything included in one.” Light-up chokers and goggles are meant to guide the wearer through the storm, while earrings and necklaces with the Luar Zepol emblem dangling from them might serve as talismans to fight off blizzards. Futurism extended to fabrics: man-made materials dominated the collection, from faux fur to vinyl, nylon, and charmeuse. In the future, Raul reasons, perhaps there will be no genuine fur or leather. “I read this article about how in the year 2050 there will no longer be meat on this planet," he said.
To capture the full effect of boys stranded in the cold, a frosted eye was created by dabbing fake snow on the inside and outside corners of models' icy blue eyelids. Their eyelashes were then painted white and bits of the fake flurries were placed on the ends and flicked onto the cheekbones and chin. For a scraping-through-the-snow effect, fluffy puffs of cotton were applied to the nails. With the hair, Raul thought about those same boys on his street that used to bleach their tips. As if they had run out of the salon mid-process, models confidently donned rows of foil in their hair, while others wore weaving caps with white strands pulled through. The end result was like a tribe of Mortal Kombat characters battling bad weather instead of each other.
The tundra didn't stop with the hair and makeup. Blizzard sound effects opened the show, followed by Madonna’s “Frozen." The inclement weather then spilled out onto the runway where machines blew out heavy doses of synthetic snow onto the audience, which caused many to reach for their own coats to shield themselves from the storm.
Photos by James Parker | E-mail ONLINE@OPENINGCEREMONY.US to be notified when the FW14 collection arrives at OC!
