Luar Zepol designer Raul Lopez, image:Måximo Del Castillo
Brooklyn born designer, Raul Lopez's biography reads like an academy award winning film. Born and bred in Brooklyn, Lopez found an outlet, beginning at the tender age of 12, for the stress and anxiety caused by a sometimes chaotic environment via art, particularly fashion design. Using his talent, creativity and personal drive for self expression Lopez rose through the ranks in New York's Street Wear scene, Ball scene, Washington Heights Dominican Social scene, before making a huge splash in mainstream fashion co-founding the hyper-popular Hood by Air label.
With his current project, his own line Luar Zepol, Raul continues to express his point of view, and life experiences while pushing the boundaries of fashion via innovative and imaginative design.
Here's what Lopez had to say about the inspiration for the Spring 2015 collection:
sketch from the Luar Zepol Spring 2015 collection courtesy of Raul Lopez
“The scariest era of my life was my freshman year in high school. Thrown into one of the toughest schools in the city, I was instantly face to face with many different nationalities, and the gangs they affiliated themselves with. There were gang members of all ethnicities; black, brown, and white, and they each had their own dress code, a way of expressing their affiliations without having to say a word. School was a constant source of anxiety, with fighting and turf wars going on everyday. The only exception to this rule was the common area, the “T”, where everyone would hang out and get along. During that time I would skip school to party, and stay up late clubbing to forget the issues of school and life. "
And on how he built on that inspiration to create artfully wearable pieces:
"For this collection, I wanted to revisit that time in my life, deconstruct it, and put it back together in my own way. I chose tough denims to serve as a metaphorical thick skin, incorporating denims and an overall color scheme of browns, blacks, and creams, each representing different skin tones. The bra strap detail that is featured predominantly on many of the pieces is an homage of sorts to the “T”, that area held so much tension together, acting as a unifier for all the groups. The military references throughout the collection also serve as a reminder of the real and imagined war we felt we fought on a daily basis.”
The Luar Zepol Spring/ Summer 2015 collection will be unveiled on Wednesday, September 10th at 3PM, at the Webster Hall Grand Ballroom . For more information on the label including where to buy previous season pieces visit the official Luar Zepol site.