Raul Lopez Of Luar Puts Crème Fraîche & Caviar On His Dunkin’ Hash Browns

If you know anything about Raul Lopez, then you know he embodies a fiercely bougie lifestyle while still keeping it real enough for the streets of Brooklyn. The downtown fixture and designer of Luar has made a name for himself both in fashion and on the Internet, with his “final boss” style spawning countless memes on X, and more recently, his Instagram story selfies posted from anonymous airplane seats captioned “BRB” also inspiring other local celebrities to snap plane pics. His sense of style and jet-setting attitude made him the ideal candidate for a collaboration with American Express Gold Card on a rendition of his now-signature Ana bag in three metallic shades — a first for the brand — in classic Amex card colors: rose gold, yellow gold, and white gold.

Another first for Luar are the bag charms, an accessory trend that’s been everywhere this summer, and Lopez’s take features nods to American Express Gold Card members’ access to Resy, Dunkin’, and the many, many frequent-flier miles that Lopez has no doubt racked up on his escapades to his native Dominican Republic and beyond. The bag is unavoidable, loud, and ready to reflect off of the photographers’ lenses at the Sept. 10 Luar Spring/Summer 2025 show, titled “En Boca Quedó,” where it will make its runway debut. In between fittings and meetings, Lopez spoke to NYLON about his preferred airline, his dream American Express partnership, and who he wants to see wearing the bags.

How did this partnership with American Express come about?

It was so funny when they hit me up, because I had said two weeks before that I would love to do something with American Express Gold. Two weeks later, my team and I got the email and were like “This is insane.” For me, American Express Gold gives very Luar energy, like the Ana bag. The synergy is there. It’s very organic, in a weird way. I’ve done many iterations of the bag, but I really like this one. It’s the first time we’ve done charms on the bags. It has the Dunkin’ charm, the Resy charm, it has the plane, and the Amex Gold card. I’ve been wanting to do something with the bag that wasn’t just the bag, and it worked out in our favor. I feel like the little girlies are going to really love this.

What are you ordering when you go to Dunkin’?

My whole team is team Dunkin’. There’s one right in front of our building. I get the hash browns.

They’re so good.

You should try the hash browns with crème fraîche and caviar. They’re almost like blinis. They’re the same shape. Girl, you need to try it. It’s really good.

That’s such a great idea. What’s your favorite restaurant at the moment?

In New York, there's a spot right by my house that’s really cute that I want to try called Yuu. I’ll probably be there with my bag, making it hot and feeling cute.

You moved recently, right?

Yeah, I’ve been in Williamsburg my whole life, and now I’m in Greenpoint. There’s so many restaurants over there I want to storm, and Resy is definitely giving over here.

What airline do you fly? Are you a Delta girl?

Only Delta.

Is it Silver Medallion? Is it giving Gold Medallion?

She’s up there. She’s the BRB girl.

I was going to say, it’s the BRB summer.

It’s crazy, the whole BRB thing. People tag me on BRB every day; I wake up to so many tags. People thought I was flying people out, and I was like, no, these people are just tagging me when they fly out. It’s pretty iconic and funny because I didn’t even intend it to be a trend, and now it’s like a trend and it’s cute. I love it. It’s like people be doing cute filters, and they do their own thing, but I love [it]. I would definitely be doing one with my Amex card, my little and my whole thing, my bag. It’s going to be cute.

What was the best party moment you had this summer?

Pride in Queens was really, really fun. It’s a cute space where no one bothers you, and you can actually go crazy and have a good time. It feels like old New York in a weird way. I love it. I had such a good time.

Why Midtown for the show? Is Midtown coming back?

You know what? It’s crazy you say that, because I’ve been really into Midtown. Everyone from Midtown is coming downtown, so now I’m going uptown. I feel like Luar is also that girl who falls into all different brackets, and you can’t really box in the brand. It can go from the Upper East Side to Bushwick and code switch in different ways with many different walks of life. That’s why I wanted to do the American Express bag. It gives that. It exudes fab and continental.

Give me three words to describe the new collection.

“En boca quedó.” You can’t really translate it [to English], but it’s like, “I stay in your mouth.” It’s like when people talk about people, you keep my name in your mouth. I stay on the back of your mind. It’s a thing that old people in the Dominican Republic will say walk away, but now the queens in the DR have made it the new shade.

Who do you want to see wear the bag?

That’s very hard because I’m loving the OG downtown and OG city girls, and add in the housewife vibes. I love an Upper East Side granny. I like to mix it up. I want to see the woman who goes for lunch at Bergdorf’s, but also I want to see the girls that are at Dimes Square having cocktails. That’s the thing. It’s not specified to one area, this bag. I will see it uptown. I’ll see it downtown. I’ll see in Brooklyn. It’s going to do her thing.