The jury has also watched lengthy excerpts from an October videotaped deposition in which Trump vehemently denied raping Carroll or ever really knowing her.
Without Trump’s testimony, lawyers were scheduled to make closing arguments Monday, with deliberations likely to begin on Tuesday.
After prosecutors rested their case Thursday, Trump attorney Joe Tacopina immediately rested the defense case as well without calling any witnesses. He did not request additional time for Trump to decide to testify. Tacopina declined in an email to comment after the deadline passed Sunday.
On Thursday, Kaplan had given Trump extra time to change his mind and request to testify, though the judge did not promise he would grant such a request to reopen the defense case so Trump could take the stand.
At the time, Kaplan noted that he’d heard about news reports Thursday in which Trump told reporters while visiting his golf course in Doonbeg, Ireland, that he would “probably attend” the trial. Trump also criticized Kaplan, a Bill Clinton appointee, as an “extremely hostile” and “rough judge” who “doesn’t like me very much.”
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( With inputs from : www.politico.com )
The move marks an early attempt to gain the high ground after Republicans last year seized on the state’s bail laws as evidence Democrats are weak on crime, fueling embarrassing losses for House Democrats in New York. The governor’s new strategy could shape next year’s House races, and maybe even control of Congress. But it could also prove a tough and complicated sell to voters.
The new law will give judges greater authority to decide whether an individual can be held on bail. The tweaks mark, to the dismay of liberals, a third round of rollbacks of progressive bail laws Democrats passed in 2019.
Hochul’s team realized too late in the midterm cycle that public safety and the economy — not abortion rights — were animating New York voters. The result was the closest governor’s race since 1994, and Democrats were swept out of all four House seats on Long Island, as well as battleground races in the Hudson Valley.
The blame landed squarely on New York Democrats and especially Hochul, a messaging mishap that even former Speaker Nancy Pelosi said state leaders should have recognized earlier.
Former GOP Rep. Lee Zeldin’s gubernatorial campaign focused on rising crime rates in big New York cities, and he consistently blamed the bail laws for permitting dangerous individuals to walk free.
Democrats attempted to argue that there is little evidence linking crime spikes to New York’s bail laws and pointed to larger, national crime trends that were influenced by the pandemic. But Zeldin and GOP House candidates successfully used the issue to gain ground in the critical New York City suburbs.
Hochul held up the state budget for nine days last year to get a handful of bail changes. But then she didn’t effectively promote the tougher laws during the campaign.
She is trying not to make the same mistake twice.
So Hochul’s budget, the first of her first full term, revolved around addressing those critiques; she delayed budget negotiations for weeks and sacrificed a deal on her other major initiatives, like a broad housing plan she wanted, in order to push reluctant Democrats to once again open talks on bail. She was backed up by Adams.
“I say over and over again that there are many rivers that feed the sea of violence, and we have to dam each river, and we damned one during this process,” Adams said Wednesday on WABC Radio.
The ultimate deal still left many unhappy. It did not go as far as Republicans, some moderates and even Adams wanted. Hochul has resisted backing a “dangerousness” standard for even greater judicial discretion that has been used by other states that have successfully overhauled bail laws.
“The governor is going to claim a win for public safety even though the law expressly prohibits judges from taking a defendant’s dangerousness into account during the pretrial process,” Albany-area Republican Sen. Jake Ashby said in a statement during budget votes last week. “If she tries to spin that as judicial discretion, she will be embracing a level of shamelessness previously reserved only for her predecessor.”
Former Gov. Andrew Cuomo, too, brushed off the changes as inconsequential in the state’s fight against crime during his podcast Thursday. Cuomo, a Democrat who cruised to three terms before resigning in 2021 over sexual harassment allegations, said he personally would have sought a broader criminal justice deal.
“I don’t think anyone won anything. The governor loses,” Cuomo said. “The answer was not bail reform.”
The changes, for example, did not include adjustments to discovery laws — measures also passed in 2019 outlining how and when prosecutors hand over case material — despite pushes from progressive prosecutors who say those laws also need to be fixed to prevent cases from being tossed on technical grounds.
Republicans won’t be letting up on attacking Democrats on crime, state GOP chair Ed Cox said. Democrats “are not going to be able to hide on this issue” in 2024 when all 26 House seats will be on the ballot, he said.
“Kathy Hochul continues to have her head in the sand on crime,” he said in a statement. “The changes made in her budget are just window dressing.”
The amendments go too far for the Legislature’s progressive caucuses, which say such adjustment could lead to more poor, mostly minority suspects being held on bail — the reason the laws were changed in the first place.
Hochul struggled to build progressive enthusiasm for her candidacy last year, and the new changes may not help her do so in the future.
“The governor’s effort to decimate bail wasn’t driven by facts. It was driven by fear mongering, headlines, political expediency and it was reacting to a far-right strategy to weaponize racism,” Assemblymember Latrice Walker (D-Brooklyn) said during the budget debate.
They is also a policy gamble. Researchers have said Hochul’s measures are not the strongest way to address specific issues of recidivism and the broader issue of public safety.
The Brennan Center for Justice at NYU School of Law was “disappointed by the Legislature’s continued focus on revising bail reform to the exclusion of other policies that can make our communities safer,” senior counsel Ames Grawert said in a statement.
In response, Hochul said the budget also includes more money for gun violence prevention, mental health support and pay bumps for public defenders.
Now she’ll have to better sell her plan to skeptical voters.
Democrats will be “able to say they took significant steps toward improving the safety of New Yorkers, while not going back on reforms that were necessary,” Hochul told reporters.
“And we have to show that we struck the right balance.”
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( With inputs from : www.politico.com )
The incident has sparked growing concern throughout the week, most prominently from left-leaning New York officials.
“NYC is not Gotham. We must not become a city where a mentally ill human being can be choked to death by a vigilante without consequences. Or where the killer is justified & cheered,” City Comptroller Brad Lander tweeted Tuesday.
A day later, U.S. Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez weighed in.
“Jordan Neely was murdered. But bc Jordan was houseless and crying for food in a time when the city is raising rents and stripping services to militarize itself while many in power demonize the poor, the murderer gets protected w/ passive headlines + no charges,” she tweeted. “It’s disgusting.”
The former Marine has not been charged in the case. But on Wednesday night, Mayor Eric Adams chided his fellow elected officials for getting ahead of the district attorney, who is looking into the incident.
“I don’t think that’s very responsible at a time when we are still investigating the situation. Let’s let the DA conduct his investigation with law enforcement officials,” Adams said during an appearance on CNN. “To interfere with that is not the right thing to do.”
Adams, who was once a transit cop during his career with the NYPD, urged observers to reserve judgment until more facts in the case are known.
“We cannot just blatantly say what a passenger should or should not do in a situation like that,” he said.
In a statement Wednesday, Bragg’s office detailed some of the steps it would be taking as it looks into the case — and alluded that updates may not arrive as quickly as some observers would like.
“This is a solemn and serious matter that ended in the tragic loss of Jordan Neely’s life,” DA spokesperson Doug Cohen said in a statement. “As part of our rigorous ongoing investigation, we will review the Medical Examiner’s report, assess all available video and photo footage, identify and interview as many witnesses as possible, and obtain additional medical records. This investigation is being handled by senior, experienced prosecutors and we will provide an update when there is additional public information to share.”
While Adams occupies far more moderate political territory than Bragg, who was elected as a progressive, he has been a staunch ally of the prosecutor, declining to pile on during the disastrous rollout of a policy memo early in Bragg’s tenure, for example.
His deference to the process now gives Bragg some political cover, even as pressure builds to bring charges from a broader slice of the political spectrum.
Council Speaker Adrienne Adams, whose political philosophy aligns more closely with the mayor’s, released a lengthy statement Wednesday night lamenting Neely’s killing and calling for a thorough investigation.
“Racism that continues to permeate throughout our society allows for a level of dehumanization that denies Black people from being recognized as victims when subjected to acts of violence,” she said, later adding that “The initial response by our legal system to this killing is disturbing and puts on display for the world the double standards that Black people and other people of color continue to face.”
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( With inputs from : www.politico.com )
Tuttle is only in the early stages of exploring a run. But his interest comes as Republicans have so far struggled to field any serious contenders for the seat. Democrats, meanwhile, have united quickly behind Rep. Elissa Slotkin, a strong fundraiser who ousted an incumbent GOP representative in 2018. Her launch spooked a slew of other prominent Michigan Democrats out of the race, though a handful of other potential candidates are still considering jumping in. The state went for President Joe Biden in 2020 but former President Donald Trump won it in 2016.
With his work based in Manhattan, Tuttle splits his time between New York City and Michigan. He is from Milford, Mich. in Oakland County and maintains deep ties to the state. He was the commencement speaker last year at Eastern Michigan University, his alma mater.
Tuttle, 41, has considered a run for Congress in the past. And he’s been somewhat politically active too. In his role as president of the NYSE Institute, he hosted Speaker Kevin McCarthy in April on Wall Street when he visited the stock exchange to give a speech on the debt limit. Tuttle conducted a brief question-and-answer session with McCarthy afterward.
A timeline for Tuttle’s decision was not clear. But he has spoken with Republicans in D.C. and Michigan about a possible run and the National Republican Senatorial Committee has shown interest in his candidacy.
“John Tuttle is a strong potential recruit in Michigan,” NRSC Chair Steve Daines (R-Mont.) said.
GOP Rep. John James, who won a Michigan House battleground seat last fall, declined to make a third run for Senate in 2024. (He lost to Stabenow in 2018 and Democratic Sen. Gary Peters in 2020.) Former Republican Rep. Peter Meijer is considering a run. Meijer lost his Grand Rapids-based House seat in 2022 after voting to impeach Trump, which could also be a liability in any Senate primary. Another potential GOP candidate is Kevin Rinke, who lost a primary bid to be the Republican nominee against Gov. Gretchen Whitmer in 2022.
While Tuttle would have the funds to support a campaign and a major network of potential donors to tap, he is a political neophyte. Senate Republicans have actively been looking to recruit candidates who have fundraising prowess or large personal wealth after being vastly outraised by Democrats in the midterms.
Through his work, Tuttle knows former Sen. Kelly Loeffler (R-Ga.) and her husband, Jeffrey Sprecher, who is CEO of the parent company of the New York Stock Exchange. Loeffler joined the Senate in 2020 after she was appointed by Georgia Republican Gov. Brian Kemp. But she lost to Democrat Raphael Warnock in a runoff election the following year, under attacks that her personal wealth made her disconnected from the needs of the state.
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( With inputs from : www.politico.com )
“We’re going to be the first state in the nation to advance zero-emissions new homes and buildings,” Hochul said Thursday, announcing a conceptual deal on the budget that was due March 31.
The measure will help the state achieve its ambitious mandate to slash emissions by 40 percent from 1990 levels by 2030 and 85 percent by 2050 and was recommended in a plan approved in December by state agency heads and outside experts. Exemptions will be included for commercial kitchens, emergency generators and hospitals.
But some key details have not yet been finalized. Hochul also indicated she expects the deal to include rebates to consumers as part of a cap-and-trade initiative for emissions, but a detailed agreement hasn’t been reached on that issue.
There is no measure that eventually bans the replacement of gas furnaces in existing homes included in the budget, which Hochul had proposed and is recommended in the state’s climate plan. Lawmakers rejected that early on in negotiations. And none of the budget proposals included any measure targeting gas stoves in existing buildings.
Details of the agreement will be laid out in state budget bills that have not yet been printed. A potentially major caveat on grid reliability pushed by Assembly Democrats and a major gas utility also hasn’t been finalized, leading environmental advocates to moderate their enthusiasm until they see the final wording.
The Assembly initially proposed a requirement for the state’s Public Service Commission to review the ability of the electric system to support new buildings, although it was not clear how that would function because the requirements for reliable service already enshrined in state law.
“As the governor and legislative leadership continue to hammer out the details, they need to ensure that this is as strong as possible and there aren’t any loopholes,” said Liz Moran, New York policy advocate for Earthjustice. “The technology is ready, and we absolutely have to be doing this to meet our climate law mandates.”
Advocates had pushed for an earlier implementation of the restrictions and pushed back on a later start for commercial buildings. Hochul had initially proposed a split at four stories for the timeline, but environmental groups and Senate Democrats backed seven stories to align with New York City’s zero-emission building law that passed in 2021.
The later date — starting Dec. 31, 2028 — is also expected to apply for commercial buildings and those over 100,000 square feet, Hochul spokesperson Katy Zielinski said.
A measure to end the “100 foot rule” subsidies for new gas hookups, as proposed by Senate Democrats, is not in the budget, Zielinski said. That means utilities will still pass on some costs of hooking up new customers, who they are legally required to serve, to other gas ratepayers.
The state budget will include a provision to allow for rebates to New York residents under a cap-and-trade program that is expected to be rolled out in 2025 and will raise gas prices at the pump and home heating fuel costs. Some additional details about how the funds could be spent may also be included but details are not finalized, according to the governor’s office.
“What we’re doing is setting up a mechanism to be able to allow for rebates that we generate with a cap and invest program,” Hochul said. “We think that is the important first step, because we couldn’t do it under existing law.”
Some environmental advocates had pressed for the Legislature to play more of a role in the parameters of that program, which is expected to be rolled out through regulations by the state Department of Environmental Conservation. It will help the state achieve the emissions reductions required under the 2019 climate law, but Hochul has raised concerns about the costs of the program and sought to rewrite the law to reduce the emissions captured by the measure.
“We’re focusing on aggressive climate protections but we have to make sure that they’re affordable for New Yorkers or it won’t work,” she said.
Hochul also said that a measure to allow the New York Power Authority to build new renewables was included in the deal. The measure will include labor standards, allow but not require NYPA to work with the private sector on renewable projects and includes the “renewable energy access and community help” program for NYPA to provide bill credits to low-income residents to reduce their utility costs, according to the governor’s office.
Assemblymember Ken Zebrowski (D-Rockland County) said the details of the NYPA measure are among the open issues: “Hopefully there is a full agreement soon and everything can go to print, but those details aren’t all worked out yet.”
Hochul also announced the Environmental Protection Fund would be kept at $400 million; $500 million in additional funding would go to water infrastructure.
Lawmakers have also agreed to Hochul’s proposal of $200 million for utility bill relief and $200 million for a NYSERDA program to weatherize and electrify the homes of some low-income New Yorkers.
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( With inputs from : www.politico.com )
Trudeau’s words echoed U.S. national security adviser Jake Sullivan who used a major policy address Thursday to point the direction the White House plans to take in the global economy.
“We’re at a moment now where we need to build capacity to produce the goods and invent the technologies of the future,” Sullivan said at the Brookings Institution. “And we’re going to do that — us plus anyone else who wants to get in on the deal.”
Trudeau used his speech to relay his big-picture vision of what Canada’s role in a rapidly changing world, repeatedly slagging Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre, though not by name.
No election has been called in Canada, but a quirk of Trudeau’s minority government means one could happen at any time before the next fixed election more than two years away.
“We’ve been investing in the middle class, not ginning up anger and telling them everything is broken and you need to burn it down,” he said, taking a swipe at his rival’s sloganeering, which has helped Conservatives smash fundraising records in a non-election year.
Trudeau also mirrored themes raised by President Joe Biden during his address to the House of Commons last month, evoking the truism that the destinies of Canada and the U.S. are intertwined. Just as Biden did in Ottawa, Trudeau took time in New York to address anxieties about a liberal democratic world order under duress following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
The prime minister’s three-term government is under fire; critics suggest it’s worn out and unable to deal with new economic and geopolitical crises. Russia’s war and tensions with China have increased the political value of defense and industrial policies — two areas that were not Liberal priorities when they swept into power in 2015.
A leaked Pentagon assessment recently obtained by The Washington Post claims Trudeau privately told NATO officials that Canada will never meet the alliance’s defense-spending target. On Friday, Trudeau dumped the blame on Conservatives, ignoring the fact his government has been in power for nearly eight years.
“We need to continue to invest more in defense, among many other things,” the prime minister said. “The previous Conservative government, for all its saber-rattling in our country, managed to drop defense spending to below one percent of our GDP.”
As a sign of progress, he referenced Canada’s $14.2-billion deal to buy 88 F-35 stealth fighter jets from the United States.
Trudeau, both during his speech and in lengthy responses to subsequent questions, worked to establish himself as a big-picture thinker and contender in the coming election — whenever it is.
America is also entering an election season — Biden confirmed his re-election campaign earlier this week.
Asked if he’s worried about democracy and America’s future, Trudeau replied: “Obviously.”
He again noted the economies of Canada and the U.S. are interconnected.
“You guys are the greatest democracy in the world. And right now, it’s not just that it’s being taken for granted by so many of your citizens. It’s actually being devalued to a certain extent. It’s not people’s fault,” he said.
“The same forces are happening in Canada and elsewhere.”
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( With inputs from : www.politico.com )
Kenneth Branagh is to star as King Lear in a production that he will also direct in London and New York.
The play will run for 50 performances at Wyndham’s theatre in the West End from October and then transfer to the Shed’s Griffin theatre in the US in autumn 2024.
It is produced by the Kenneth Branagh Theatre Company (KBTC) which presented a season of seven plays at the Garrick theatre in London from 2015-16 including John Osborne’s The Entertainer with Branagh in the lead role. In 2017, Branagh directed Tom Hiddleston as Hamlet in a limited-run production to raise funds for Rada. In 2021, KTBC’s planned production of The Browning Version by Terence Rattigan, starring and directed by Branagh, was cancelled due to Covid-related absences during rehearsals.
Branagh, who played Edgar opposite Richard Briers’ Lear in a 1990 touring production of Shakespeare’s tragedy, said in a 2019 interview that King Lear has a “sense of contained outrage by previously voiceless people” that remains pertinent in the modern political climate. The play, he added, explores a “tremendous lack of forgiveness … that is perhaps also something that our world is experiencing – a savage and judgmental and instant and violent division”.
It is the second star-powered, transatlantic Shakespearean production announced this week. Ralph Fiennes and Indira Varma will perform in a new version of Macbeth, staged by director Simon Godwin in warehouses in Liverpool, Edinburgh, London and Washington DC.
The full cast for King Lear, presented by Fiery Angel and the Shed, is yet to be announced. Tickets for the London run – which previews from 21 October and has an official opening night on 31 October – will go on sale on 5 June.
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( With inputs from : www.theguardian.com )
Last Tuesday, a nearly 100-year-old four-story garage in Manhattan’s financial district caved in, killing the a building manager, Willis Moore, and injuring five others. An employee who survived the disaster told local reporters that he had witnessed long cracks in the garage’s concrete, and that Moore himself had been trying to warn the owners about the issue.
The tragedy was a blaring wakeup call about the condition of New York City’s parking structures. The professional engineers who inspect garages say there may be more of them in need of immediate fixes.
On Tuesday, the city’s department of buildings (DOB) spokesperson announced that following the disaster, it had compiled a list of other garages with open violations related to structural issues. Out of roughly 4,000 parking structures in New York City, the agency identified 61 garages with “immediately hazardous” violations “related to a failure to maintain the building, and which specifically note structural conditions”, a spokesperson said in a statement.
“While we have not received reports that any of these 61 locations are structurally unstable, DOB inspectors are currently sweeping all of these locations out of an abundance of caution, and in the interest of public safety,” the spokesperson added.
The garage that collapsed in Manhattan had multiple open violations that referenced loose or cracked concrete, dating back to 2003. Eric Cowley, a licensed engineer who inspects New York City parking lots, says photos appear to show a girder supporting the top deck fell “like a diving board” – suggesting the structure was already in disrepair – and that the deck appeared to be covered with a porous road surface, which could have added excessive weight and allowed water to seep in. “I think [the cause of the collapse] was that decision-making, and zero maintenance,” Cowley told the Guardian.
Parking is big business in America’s densest city, and regulation has historically been lax. A covered spot in lower Manhattan can easily run $1,000 a month. To maximize profits, many parking lots operate valet-style, so that employees can cram as many vehicles in the building as possible. But until last year, there were no requirements for New York City parking structures to be regularly inspected by engineers.
After the disaster, the city compiled a list of 61 garages with ‘immediately hazardous’ violations. Photograph: Anadolu Agency/Getty Images
The 57 Ann Street building had four open violations with the city’s department of buildings, with one open violation noting “cracks between girders”, “missing concrete covering steel beams” and “defective concrete with exposed rear cracks”. Another open violation from 2009 noted “loose pieces of concrete in danger of falling at various locations”.
Records show the garage owner paid fines for these violations. A DOB spokesperson said the building had carried out repairs in 2010, though it failed to submit required “certificates of correction” to officially close out the violations. The DOB paid two visits to the garage in 2011 and 2013 and “did not find structural concrete conditions at the building which would have necessitated a violation”, the spokesperson said, adding that no DOB inspector had visited the building in the decade since. A representative for Enterprise Ann, the company operating the garage, said that it “continues to cooperate with the agencies involved to investigate the cause of this accident”.
But garages won’t be able to go unmonitored that long any more. A law that went into effect last year requires New York City garage owners to hire a licensed engineer from a list of 50 “qualified parking structure inspectors” to inspect their structures, at least once every six years. The rule is being phased in across the city, with Manhattan garages up first – the doomed Ann Street garage would have been required to do an inspection by the end of this year. But some outer borough garages won’t have to complete an inspection until late 2027.
Now, owners don’t want to wait. Cowley and other qualified garage inspectors say their phones have been ringing off the hook since last week’s collapse. Jason Damiano, an inspector with Rand Engineering and Architecture, said he had “definitely” seen an increase in requests since last Tuesday, including from the owners of faraway garages in Brooklyn and Queens whose inspections weren’t due for years. He worries the small team of inspectors won’t be able to meet the demand: “It’s good to have the work, but whether I can handle it is the issue.”
A covered spot in Manhattan can run to $1,000 a month. Photograph: Ed Jones/AFP/Getty Images
It’s a sharp departure from the usual complacency. Parking spaces are currency, so garages are often reluctant to shut down sections for repairs, Cowley said. “In order to work on one level of a garage, you’d have to take over part of the level below as well. And if you have to work on the ramp, nobody can get in or out.”
The repairs can be costly, so the garages that tend to be more proactive about repairs “are the ones that have the means to do them”, said Rand’s Damiano. He’s seen some garages only take action after pieces of concrete start falling on to customers’ cars: “Eventually you hit a point where car owners are complaining.”
Once inspectors go in, they can find danger quickly. Water dripping from the ceiling is a red flag. The garage’s floor – what engineers call the “traffic membrane” – matters too. Cowley’s firm is repairing a Trump-owned parking garage: “The staff were washing cars on a concrete slab where the original traffic membrane had worn off. So all that water was going into the concrete and coming out downstairs.”
57 Ann isn’t the first New York City garage to collapse. The first floor of a Queens structure buckled in in 1997, forcing the city to halt nearby subway lines to prevent further damage. In 1999, an underground parking garage at a Lower East Side housing complex caved in, crushing cars and leaving a 150ft crater. And in 2010, the facade of a garage on Manhattan’s west side collapsed, raining bricks on to the sidewalk below.
Engineers say part of the tragedy is that it took the city so long to require inspections.
“Certainly, if [57 Ann] had been able to be inspected years ago and was essentially forced to do repairs or to shut down, that could have saved lives,” Damiano said.
“Obviously, these things are mostly catastrophe driven,” Cowley said. “But at least going forward, we’re on top of it. You live and learn, right?”
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( With inputs from : www.theguardian.com )
On a mild evening in early spring, an unassuming street in Brooklyn momentarily became the destination for New York’s fashion crowd. Club kids, streetwear aficionados and people dressed like Neo from The Matrix vied for a spot in the swelling crowd. The reason? A fashion label called Luar, which has become so hyped in recent years that even those not usually accustomed to queueing will gladly get in line.
It was worth it. Once inside, the show felt like a party, with Tony award-nominated playwright Jeremy O.Harris and rapper A$AP Ferg in attendance, cheers coming from the usually po-faced audience with each model, and classy and clever takes on evening wear and suitable for work suiting on the catwalk. It then – seamlessly – turned into an actual party, the kind with drinks on trays.
Luar’s designer, Raul Lopez, speaking a few weeks after the show, is wide-eyed but smiling when told about the scrum to get in. “It’s become a thing where it’s like getting into a club,” he says, speaking to the Guardian via video call from his grandmother’s house. “The kids start to leak it on TikTok or whatever … and like 700 or 800 people show up.”
Those numbers are testament to how Luar is a name known way beyond those in the rarified world of fashion. This is perhaps partly because Lopez – a queer designer of colour who grew up in a non-gentrified area of New York – stands out from the industry he operates in. Rather than obscure these differences, Luar leans into them and celebrates them – constructing something radical: a luxury label that has appeal beyond the 1%.
A model walks the runway at the Luar fashion show during New York Fashion Week in February 2023. Photograph: Hippolyte Petit/FilmMagic
If, in the fashion world, New York has long been shorthand for the uptown polish of labels such as Michael Kors and Ralph Lauren, Lopez’s Luar is one of a number of labels finally showing different points of view in this most diverse of cities. Other names include Willy Chavarria, the 56-year-old designer who works for Calvin Klein and is enjoying something of a resurgence of interest, thanks to his genderless designs and diverse street casting. And Head of State, the label founded by Taofeek Abijako when he was 17. His collection in February was a moving tribute to his father’s journey from Nigeria to Spain and finally the US.
Notably, Lopez closed fashion week – a prestigious slot usually reserved for a household name. He sees this as an affirmation. “I was born and raised in New York, [and] coming from these disturbed neighbourhoods … to be able to display my work for the world and for New York, it was an honour,” he says. “In a weird way, it wasn’t really about me, it was about everybody. It’s like ‘I can do this, you can do this too, you know, you just got to hustle.’”
There are other signs of success. He is one of nine finalists up for this year’s prestigious LVMH prize for young designers, with the winner announced in June. He was also awarded the CDFA accessories designer of the year in 2022. And sales are growing – with the Ana bag key to this meteoric rise. The first drop, in October 2021, sold out within 30 minutes, and according to Vogue Business, sales for the brand increased 140% from spring/summer 2022 to spring/summer 2023.
Launched in 2021, the classic square shape with a looped round handle has become a favourite of celebrities including Dua Lipa, Troye Sivan and (delightfully) Patti LaBelle, but also regular folk. This is partly because of its price tag – the largest is $395 (£315). That might sound expensive – and it is – but compare that to other catwalk brands and it becomes relatively affordable in the world of luxury; a Louis Vuitton Speedy will set you back £1,310, for example, while a Chanel 2.55 is £8,530.
The Ana bag from Luar. Photograph: Luca Khouri/PR Image
Lopez says this was intentional – it’s the kind of purchase someone can feasibly save up for (and they do – all but one of the designs are sold out online, and there are enthusiastic unboxing videos on TikTok). “I wanted to make a bag that I could afford when I was coming up,” he says. He says he sees people carrying the bag regularly. “I could be in one of those posh restaurants in London and then go to Brixton and a girl has that on there, too,” he says. “And it’s the same thing in Japan. I get pictures all the time. It’s pretty iconic. She [Ana] has a world of her own.”
He elaborates on how the design is a tribute to his family, who immigrated from the Dominican Republic in the mid-80s. “The handle was a homage to my grandmother and a nod to the Mod era,” explains Lopez. “And the shape was a nod to my mom. It’s like a briefcase … when immigrants came here, what they thought American luxury was, it was to have a briefcase. It’s a stamp of approval that you’re doing [well] even though you’re dirt poor. My dad had a briefcase in the house, and my mom had the small briefcase.” Is it a symbol of success? “100%. That’s what they were using it for, it was to fit into that world.”
The son of a construction worker and a factory seamstress, Lopez’s family and upbringing in the Dominican community are central to his designs, but also his lifestyle. He grew up in Williamsburg, long before the area was gentrified to the point of parody, and still lives in the same building in which he spent his childhood (although his parents have since moved to Long Island).
His mother and aunts showed him the power of clothes. “They were trying to emulate the American luxury they were seeing and to copy, paste – like a Latina Elizabeth Taylor or something,” he says. “But [they were] living in this dump. And to me, it was so beautiful. They were putting on these clothes to walk around these crack-infested neighbourhoods.”
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The Ana bag from Luar. Photograph: Luca Khouri/PR Image
If Lopez’s relatives are one type of family that he draws on, there’s also his community of other young queer men of colour, who came up together in New York in the early 00s. The models in his shows are often women Lopez knows from the ballroom scene, the diverse LGBTQ+ subculture as captured in Pose and Paris Is Burning. This is also where he met Telfar Clemens, the man behind the label Telfar, who Lopez calls his “best friend”. The two are often compared – partly because Telfar’s bag is also another so-called accessible status accessory, with the biggest of his shopping totes selling for £211 (it has been dubbed the “Brooklyn Birkin”). Lopez has a note of impatience when asked about the comparison. “It’s like, why are they comparing us? Do they compare a Prada bag to a Fendi bag?”
Any narrative that they are competitors rather than friends is far from the case. “[Clemens] was always like ‘you need to do accessory’, he pushed and pushed,” says Lopez. “When I did my first drop [of the Ana] … he came and picked me up, popping bottles of champagne. We went to dinner to celebrate. They can’t break our bond.” Lopez says Clemens buys the Ana as presents for his relatives, rather than giving them his own bags.
Lopez is already fairly established in the fashion industry, beginning the label Hood By Air (HBA) with fellow designer Shayne Oliver (who he also met on the ballroom scene) in 2005, when Lopez was 17. If New York fashion at the time was pretty frilly dresses or work-ready shifts, Oliver and Lopez brought club culture, men in skirts and oversized logos to the catwalk long before other designers explored these themes. “We changed the game,” says Lopez now. “It took me a long time to be able to say that. I never gave myself my flowers.”
Pop star Dua Lipa in New York City in September 2022 carrying an Ana bag from Luar. Photograph: Robert Kamau/GC Images
Lopez left HBA (without any conflict, he says) in 2010 and worked on various projects until Luar Zepol – a semordnilap of his name, later shortened to Luar – first began in 2017. But, after 12 years on the hamster wheel of fashion, the designer was reaching breaking point. “I was depressed and tired and exhausted, my mental health was all over the place,” he says. “Right after my show in 2019 I stopped completely and I disappeared into the Cayman Islands [he worked as a consultant to a hotel] and hid out down there for a year and a half.”
He says this retreat came from a realisation. “I never took a break since I left HBA. It was always go, go, go, go, go because even when I was stopping, I was still doing consulting. I was still working, trying to make money. It took a toll on me,” he says. “I’m always [the one] saying ‘oh, depression, anxiety. That’s crap, just snap out of it’. I didn’t know that I was actually depressed and had anxiety and my mental health was going through the sky.”
While he was concerned time out from the industry would mean fashion would move on, it actually proved to be the galvanising moment. “When I came back in 2021 I already had a business plan,” he says. “I figured out how to make my brand successful – not just make clothing to please my friends, the art world and the fashion girls.” As his Instagram bio semi-jokes, philanthropy is next. “I’m just trying to figure out a way I can give back to the people who helped me and who inspire me,” he says “Like trans housing organisations, immigrants. I would like to do different colourways [of the Ana] and the money would just go to organisations. I’m not rich but I don’t care. I’ve lived a life of privilege and I still do. I don’t care about the money.”
The Ana, meanwhile, has her own story. “Seeing my bag all around the world is beautiful,” he says. “I walked into a hotel and saw this woman and her mad crocodile Birkin and then she has my bag across her body. You go to Bushwick [a Brooklyn neighbourhood] and you see it [too]. That’s the world of Luar.”
