Luar's Extravagant Expression of Resistance

"I love the fact Raul Lopez trucks a few parlour palms into whichever venue he decides to show his Luar wares. It's like a piss-take on a salon setting, a nod and a wink to tropes of fanciness which, like so many other received notions and accepted ideas, Lopez seeks to gleefully invert. Why can't feathers not only smother a dress, but sprout from cuticles and eyelashes? And for all genders alike, no constraints, no boundaries."

"Both alighted on Carnival as an expression of resistance and protest through extravagance, of joy as agitation, undoubtedly a reflection of an American condition in fashion right now. Of course, Carnival cannot - or rather, should not - be divorced from its racial roots, its legacy in colonialism and enslaved people using audacity to buck against authority. The messaging is as potent in 2025 as it was back in 1520,"

"Many of Luar's models looked tarred and feathered - a punishment originating in 12th-century England but widely practised in the American colonies, as a punitive form of intimidation. Luar rather has reclaimed the act, just as, last season, he reclaimed the slur of El Pato - translating as duck, a pejorative term for gay in some Latino countries - as a term to be sported proudly."

"Feathers, of course, are inherently flamboyant, gay. Susan Sontag declared that camp is a woman walking around in a dress made of three million feathers. Unlike fur, say, they have never really been co-opted as a symbol of power, as expressive of machismo. But Luar used them across frothy chubby jackets for everyone, as well as laser cutting the surfaces of tailoring to resemble quills trembling on point."

Raul Lopez brings parlour palms into venues and inverts salon tropes, deploying feathers that smother garments and sprout from cuticles and eyelashes. The collection embraces Carnival as a mood of resistance and protest through extravagance, aligning with Rachel Scott's Diotima. Carnival's history is rooted in the Caribbean and colonialism, with enslaved people's audacity forming part of its legacy. Many models appeared tarred and feathered, transforming a historical punitive act into reclamation. Lopez previously reclaimed the slur El Pato as prideful. Feathers appear across chubby jackets and laser-cut tailoring, erasing gender constraints.

Read at AnOther