February 11, 2025 |
Raul Lopez’s AW25 Luar collection was like a call to arms. Dubbed El Pato, it was a bold reclamation of queerness. In Spanish, pato means duck, as in the water bird, but that’s far from what Lopez was talking about. His “pato” referred to how in some parts of Latin America the term is used as a homophobic slur.
The show opened to the first lines of El Gran Varón (The Great Boy) by Willie Colón, a salsa song from the late ‘80s that details the story of Simón, whose father wants him to be just like him. However, when he grows up, Simón transitions, is rejected by his father, and eventually dies alone of AIDS. But as tragic as Simón’s story is, this wasn’t a mournful show. Rather, it was a defiant celebration of queerness in the wake of US President Trump’s reelection and the heightened targeting of LGBTQ+ communities.
The clothes themselves channelled ‘80s maximalism doused in queer codes. That meant structured, single-breasted jackets featuring jewel necklines turned boatneck when draped to expose a shoulder and barrel leg dark wash denim undercut knit jumpers with shrugged shoulders. A moto jacket-dress with batwing sleeves was paired with a pencil skirt, while a Medici-collared jacket with ribbed cuffs in brown wool matched with slender trousers, offering a refreshing take on power dressing.
Elsewhere, a series of hooded catsuits cradled elbows so models’ hands laid limply in front of their bodies (a gesture often used to imply homosexuality), while feather-embroidered jackets – one in Persian lamb, another in plasticised après-ski form – doubled down on the pato theme. “Hand gestures gay, flamboyant, pato – just like the clothes he wore, exacto [exactly], like Simón. Simón el maricón [the faggot],” Lopez wrote in a poem that accompanied the collection. This was a playful, unapologetically pointed reclamation.
Photography courtesy of Luar.
