What You Need to Know About Luar, the Brand Supported by Beyoncé

• Luar is a designer brand created by New York native Raul Lopez.
• His unique dresses and signature Ana purses are beloved by celebrities and fashion fans.
• Even Beyoncé supported the creative’s New York Fashion Week runway on Tuesday.

On Tuesday night, spectators packed into a Bushwick warehouse in Brooklyn, New York, to attend a New York Fashion Week show.

And so did Beyoncé.

The “Texas Hold ‘Em” musician was there to see her nephew strut the runway and to view the latest designs from Luar, a New York City fashion brand created by Raul Lopez.

But what else makes Luar a coveted it-brand?

Here’s what you need to know about the beloved designer, who continues to catch the attention of fashion fans and Hollywood superstars alike.

The story of Luar

If you haven’t noticed, Luar is Raul spelled backward. But the fashion brand’s name isn’t just a clever spelling twist.

It’s also an “alter ego” that’s helped Lopez find acceptance in the fashion industry, as he told GCV Magazine.

People often assume he’s “a French boy or something like that” because of the brand’s name, he told the outlet. But the “plot twist” is that Lopez, a Brooklyn native with Dominican roots, is behind the brand.

As Lopez told W Magazine in 2022, he didn’t take a traditional route into the fashion industry — skipping fashion school entirely, for example, because he worried that attending one would have revealed that he was gay.

“It was a different era,” he told the publication. “But I think that by me not going, it juiced me up to hustle harder. I was sneaking into Parsons and the FIT library and standing outside, acting like I left my ID at home. Then, boom, go in and start scanning books and getting references. I still go three times a week.”

Of course, he’s now found massive success after starting Luar in 2017.

As multiple outlets have reported, getting into Lopez’s runway shows each season is nearly as difficult as scoring tickets to Beyoncé’s Renaissance World Tour or getting into the trendiest club.

But fashion fans are desperate to see his latest creations, which are always deeply inspired by his East Coast hometown and Caribbean heritage.

He told British Vogue that his mom was a seamstress in the Dominican Republic, which inspired his early interest in clothes.

And during his childhood in Williamsburg, Lopez was fascinated by the fashion of his neighborhood — specifically that outside the Domino Sugar Refinery.

“Back then, that’s where all the trans prostitutes and women were hanging out, waiting for the workers to come out — and they were in full looks!” he told The Face. “I mean, fringe leather jackets, thigh-high boots, hair, makeup, earrings, all these leather looks. We weren’t allowed to go down there, but I was sneaking out. This is, like, 3 p.m.! They were ready. It was a crazy melting pot of fashion, but it just worked so well in the neighborhood.”

And his designs still pay homage to those early inspirations today.

“I think it’s my job to, in a weird way, tell their story through my story, and talk about how these people actually played a major part in the Luar vision,” he told The Face. “They were the pinnacle of fashion for me because that’s all I would see. There were so many different figures walking around. Sometimes, I sit outside my bougie coffee shop and see one or two people walking by that I saw growing up. And I’m like: damn, you were iconic, and you have no idea how fab you were.”

The most beloved Luar pieces

It’s likely no surprise that celebrities love the designer brand.

Rihanna has worn Luar dresses, Dua Lipa has carried its famous Ana bag, and, of course, Beyoncé attended the latest Luar runway show.

But even less surprising is the fact that the coveted Luar purse that Beyoncé carried that night — the $340 large Ana tote — is now sold out.

This season, and likely the ones to come, everyone wants a piece of Luar.