LUAR's Raul Lopez Wins CFDA's Accessories Designer of the Year
The designer used to sneak into Parsons to learn.
Last night, everyone who is anyone in fashion gathered at the CFDA Fashion Awards to celebrate established and emerging brands alike and New York-based designer Raul Lopez was one of the many honored at the event.
Taking home the Accessories Designer of the Year award, the mind behind LUAR is known for its innovative and incredibly dynamic designs, among them the Instagram-worthy Ana handbag with its inimitable circular handle and angular shape.
The son of Dominican immigrants who worked working in garment district factories, Lopez was not allowed to study fashion. Ever resourceful and tenacious, the scrappy creative shared with a captive audience that he used to sneak into the Fashion Institute of Technology and Parsons to learn his craft, saying, “That was my education.” His award, however, is his “diploma,” signifying the journey he has had to see his designs on It girls and celebrities’ wrists, from the likes of Rihanna and Kylie Jenner to Solange and Theophilus London.
Reflecting on the community he feels with his graduating class, so to speak, Lopez reveals, “It was a lineup of family. They all have a longer trajectory of doing accessories and I think even the ones that were nominated were rooting for me in a weird way. We were all congratulating each other beforehand and I felt like if I win, they win and if they win, I win.”
Fittingly, Lopez will be giving his award to his mother, joking, “I’m bad at keeping good stuff. I don’t like good attention, only bad.”
