Luar S/S 2025 New York

[Snejana Onopka]

Totally agree with your assessment of this “fashion house”. IMHO the type of designers that Luar and Chavarria are is very reflective of the obsession with ethnicity that has only become more pronounced with Americans, of course you cannot be a Latino and dress Park Avenue dames in refined shifts like Narciso, you’ve got to go out of your way to “represent” your culture and ethnicity…something which I’d prefer they refrained from doing seeing what has come out of it. You cannot just put out ch0lo chic wares on a runway and call yourself ,not just a designer, but a designer with a conscious and a purpose, especially not when the clothes themselves are so badly made!

One correction though, Sybilla is American born and later in life she naturalized as Spanish. I agree that she’s a designer’s designer that’s taken her fashions to heights way out of these try-hards’ reach.

using ch0lo and pachuco streetstyle/culture are very interesting starting points if a designer like chavarria wants to make a comment about immigration, the chicano movement, identity/pochos/mestizo (not being mexican enough for mexicans and not being american enough for americans), how life is like being mexican-american and etc theres so much to discuss through clothing when it comes to ethnicity and latino identity. but as you said the result is so poor, the clothes do not stand for themselves and are barely being held together by weak intellectual blabber.

being Latino myself and living in Latin America i find it so funny when american designers of latino descent (especially the ones from new york) try to make an overarching comment about what being latino really is, bc they usually lump everything together and call it day without caring about the cultural nuances in latin america lol someone from bogota or sao paulo would have the same difficulty relating to chavarria and luar's """"latinidad"""" rags just as much as a white person from the midwest, in fact even japanese ch0los are doing a much better job at showcasing a part of latino culture than them lol.

the arrogance of trying to speak about/to a whole continent just to sell overpriced sh*tty clothes is so baffling, if you want to make a polifical statement at least have the decency to read galeano, gloria anzaldua or quijano and show your audience well tailored suits

 

[susseinmcswanny]

I feel like what it comes down to is most of NYFW designers (and Paris and Milan and London for that matter) regardless of their background all have homogenized the same one POV on life. Doesn't matter the specifics of details, it's all the same POV.

 

[LadyJunon]

using ch0lo and pachuco streetstyle/culture are very interesting starting points if a designer like chavarria wants to make a comment about immigration, the chicano movement, identity/pochos/mestizo (not being mexican enough for mexicans and not being american enough for americans), how life is like being mexican-american and etc theres so much to discuss through clothing when it comes to ethnicity and latino identity. but as you said the result is so poor, the clothes do not stand for themselves and are barely being held together by weak intellectual blabber.

being Latino myself and living in Latin America i find it so funny when american designers of latino descent (especially the ones from new york) try to make an overarching comment about what being latino really is, bc they usually lump everything together and call it day without caring about the cultural nuances in latin america lol someone from bogota or sao paulo would have the same difficulty relating to chavarria and luar's """"latinidad"""" rags just as much as a white person from the midwest, in fact even japanese ch0los are doing a much better job at showcasing a part of latino culture than them lol.

the arrogance of trying to speak about/to a whole continent just to sell overpriced sh*tty clothes is so baffling, if you want to make a polifical statement at least have the decency to read galeano, gloria anzaldua or quijano and show your audience well tailored suits

Lots of black American designers in the 10s (Virgil is a prime example) had the same problem of trying to be "The Black Experience", when "blackness" is much more vast than the male Afro-American hip-hop obsessed hypebeast. Again, it's very self-centered and insular. It's like if Alaia acted like they represented the entirety of Africa or CdG, Yohji and Issey representing all of Asia.

This sort of theming would hold more weight if they framed it in a more autobiographic lens like Lee McQueen did. Funny enough, London's PoC designers don't really have that issue. Maybe it's because their heritage is less centralised: Max Davis is Dominican, Wales Bonner and Martine Rose are Jamaican, Ahluwalia is part India, Feben is Ethiopian that was born North Korea.

.qmI feel like what it comes down to is most of NYFW designers (and Paris and Milan and London for that matter) regardless of their background all have homogenized the same one POV on life. Doesn't matter the specifics of details, it's all the same POV.

I'm going to make like a right-wing conspiracy theorist and say that it's the schools training them to design and reference in this way.

 

[Snejana Onopka]

Lots of black American designers in the 10s (Virgil is a prime example) had the same problem of trying to be "The Black Experience", when "blackness" is much more vast than the male Afro-American hip-hop obsessed hypebeast. Again, it's very self-centered and insular. It's like if Alaia acted like they represented the entirety of Africa or CdG, Yohji and Issey representing all of Asia.

This sort of theming would hold more weight if they framed it in a more autobiographic lens like Lee McQueen did. Funny enough, London's PoC designers don't really have that issue. Maybe it's because their heritage is less centralised: Max Davis is Dominican, Wales Bonner and Martine Rose are Jamaican, Ahluwalia is part India, Feben is Ethiopian that was born North Korea.

I'm going to make like a right-wing conspiracy theorist and say that it's the schools training them to design and reference in this way.

yess!! all the designers you cited show their culture in a way thats its not egocentric, it comes from a place of understanding who they are and where they came from, some do this way more successfully (the greats like azzedine and yohji) than others (davis and wales bonner) but this a whole another discussion lol. i get nothing from raul lopez besides landfill fashion made for social media

imo fashion schools nowadays focus too much on moodboards, vibes and the 2d instead of focusing on construction, fabric, movement, the body and how this clothed body will ocupy certain spaces, create memories and speak a distinct language. clothing and fashion are such powerful tools but its becoming so homogeneous and bland, everyone is speaking the same language but its a boring one

 

[tourbillions]

fashion schools nowadays focus too much on moodboards, vibes and the 2d instead of focusing on construction, fabric, movement, the body and how this clothed body will ocupy certain spaces,

it is sad that the downgrade of the designers come from the schools themselves. they are becoming more like business/marketing schools than fashion/art schools. thats why everything is so soulless, rare to see designers create an image that is very personal.

 

[VetOfOldNavy]

imo fashion schools nowadays focus too much on moodboards, vibes and the 2d instead of focusing on construction, fabric, movement, the body and how this clothed body will ocupy certain spaces, create memories and speak a distinct language.

it’s funny you say this, the headlining look of the FIT graduating class this year is a dupe of a Yohji SS02 dress with an Issey dupe following right after.

 

[Alquimista]

using ch0lo and pachuco streetstyle/culture are very interesting starting points if a designer like chavarria wants to make a comment about immigration, the chicano movement, identity/pochos/mestizo (not being mexican enough for mexicans and not being american enough for americans), how life is like being mexican-american and etc theres so much to discuss through clothing when it comes to ethnicity and latino identity. but as you said the result is so poor, the clothes do not stand for themselves and are barely being held together by weak intellectual blabber.

being Latino myself and living in Latin America i find it so funny when american designers of latino descent (especially the ones from new york) try to make an overarching comment about what being latino really is, bc they usually lump everything together and call it day without caring about the cultural nuances in latin america lol someone from bogota or sao paulo would have the same difficulty relating to chavarria and luar's """"latinidad"""" rags just as much as a white person from the midwest, in fact even japanese ch0los are doing a much better job at showcasing a part of latino culture than them lol.

the arrogance of trying to speak about/to a whole continent just to sell overpriced sh*tty clothes is so baffling, if you want to make a polifical statement at least have the decency to read galeano, gloria anzaldua or quijano and show your audience well tailored suits

That's IT!

 

[Lola701]

I feel like what it comes down to is most of NYFW designers (and Paris and Milan and London for that matter) regardless of their background all have homogenized the same one POV on life. Doesn't matter the specifics of details, it's all the same POV.

After all, it’s a western POV, through the lens of American culture which has been the dominant culture since 1945.
What is even more interesting is the impact of HipHop for example on the new generation. Because a lot of people are infused of that, you have that added lens when for the previous generation, it was just another subculture that appropriated aesthetic codes and therefore had codes that designers played with.

I have to say that, Paris and Milan, because of the weight of fashion history can still lay on the foundation of Haute Couture and Alta Moda.

American fashion is super rich in terms of influence, from Hollywood and the work of someone like Adrian, technicians like Charles James to Geoffrey Beene, The Jet Set style of Halston, the slinky colorful allure of Stephen Burrows, the glamour of Norell, the elevation of everyday style of Ralph Lauren…etc.

I would be more interested to see what someone like Luar would add to that narrative, being an heir of that culture of fashion than just being the product of HipHop culture.

 

[tourbillions]

all this talks remind me how much i hate it when i see poc people who have been living in the u.s. call for cultural appreciation/appropriation. Most of the time they have lived all their lives in the u.s. and have no idea about which parts of their non u.s. heritage are the people proud of sharing and proud of being seen used by others. Before any of that appreciation/appropriation talk, one must first pay a long and good visit to their heritage and embrace it from the country itself first. Before telling other people how it must be used even if they have it in their blood.

If they are presenting a latino vibe for example they should note that it is through the american lens and not from south america.

 

[rowjellies]

I would be more interested to see what someone like Luar would add to that narrative, being an heir of that culture of fashion than just being the product of HipHop culture.

I think it’s a reach to call Luar an “heir” to anything. It’s brand new, could be gone in 2-3 years. Most Americans have never heard of “Luar”

 

[Lola701]

I think it’s a reach to call Luar an “heir” to anything. It’s brand new, could be gone in 2-3 years. Most Americans have never heard of “Luar”

In essence yes, it can be a reach but his heritage as an American fashion designer is American fashion. He represents today a certain aspect of American fashion, so he is part of that history.
He is not different from the HBA guy.

Alexis Mabille is an irrelevant name in French fashion and in fashion at large. But he is a heir of a certain idea and representation of French fashion.