Raul Lopez Wants to Be American Fashion

"Earlier this year, on an overcast spring day in Manhattan, the fashion designer Raul Lopez stood inside a suite at the Plaza Hotel wearing black underwear, a waist-cinching pink corset, and a white plastic shopping bag over his head. He then slid into a black turtleneck and emerged a ghastly sight-the bag outlined his open mouth and nostrils, making him look like something out of a horror film. "You should go out like that," an assistant joked."

"Lopez is slim and handsome, with high cheekbones underscored by a meticulously groomed beard. He brushes and gels his eyebrows upward in aggressive spikes that give him a slightly menacing quality-which is dispelled the moment he speaks, with the vocal fry of a Valley girl, the accent of a Brooklyn-raised Dominican, and an unplaceable, slightly transatlantic cadence. His conversation moves seamlessly between English and Spanish and is peppered with queer slang."

Raul Lopez prepared for the Met Gala in a Plaza Hotel suite, wearing a pink corset and briefly a white plastic shopping bag over his head to protect hair and makeup. The bag outlined his mouth and nostrils, prompting an assistant's joke. Lopez has high cheekbones, a meticulously groomed beard, and aggressively styled eyebrows that give a slightly menacing look softened by a Valley-girl vocal fry, a Brooklyn-raised Dominican accent and a faint transatlantic cadence. His speech alternates between English and Spanish and is peppered with queer slang; he often uses female pronouns tongue-in-cheek. Lopez occupies a peculiar place in New York fashion as a schooled veteran and rising star who first achieved renown as co-founder of Hood By Air, though many wonder whether he can sustain a business.

Read at The New Yorker