Accessory to Lucero
Los Angeles designer returns to the wholesale business with a new line of accessories and shoes
What do you wear with an Eduardo Lucero backless jersey dress with a plunging neckline and a sky-high slit?
The Los Angeles designer answered that question by unveiling his new collection of accessories at a recent Hollywood event to celebrate Cinco de Mayo and the American Latino Media Arts awards.
Lucero skipped Los Angeles Fashion Week in March while he prepared his new collection, which includes belts, handbags, shoes and hats. The designer is also preparing to phase out his custom business, which he currently runs out of his Los Angeles boutique on Beverly Boulevard, to concentrate on his wholesale and retail business. The boutique will serve as both a retail outlet and wholesale showroom for his women’s collection, the new accessories line and his re-launched menswear line, which has been on hiatus for several years.
“I used to have a full line of menswear but stopped doing it about seven years ago,” Lucero said. “Now it’s starting to get fun and cool again—and besides, I needed something to wear.”
The men’s line, as with the women’s collection, will be produced in Los Angeles. The shoes and leather accessories will be produced in Leon, Mexico, where Lucero held a runway show April 29 to launch the the new accessories and shoes lines to the Latin American market.
Guests at the May 5 event at the Avalon nightclub in Hollywood got a preview of the new collections, which mixed Western and Victorian details with Lucero’s own elegant day-to-evening style.
Lucero showed a few of his nearly 20 footwear styles, including high-heeled Romanstyle sandals, as well as glamorous beaded styles, ankle-grazing boots and thigh-high styles. For men, there were motorcycle boots in black leather and more-traditional Western roper styles in natural tan. Accessories included hand-tooled leather cinch belts and vintage-style hats.
The designer adapted his own shoulder holster wallet to a feminine version in hand-tooled leather with an attached clutch. Lucero said he is also working on an evening style as well.
Lucero’s fashion on the runway ranged from his signature sexy eveningwear to his tailored daywear. “The whole collection is about silhouette,” he said, adding that pieces in the women’s line were either fitted with an emphasis on the waist or were more voluminous with draped and layered fabric.
A black floor-length gown with dramatic side slits was an updated take on Audrey Hepburn’s Holly Golightly character portrayed in the movie “Breakfast at Tiffany’s.” A white suit was cinched at the waist to create an elegant hourglass silhouette. The designer entered Tyrolean territory with an embroidered cape in loden green worn with matador pants with a ruffled hem. Crowd favorites included a fringed blouse made from an embroidered velvet scarf and a cape dress in slate jersey. The designer also included his own take on the popular bubble skirt. Lucero’s version has crisp pleats and a side tie at the hem. And he updated tuxedo dressing by topping cropped tuxedo pants with a cape with a satin collar and lapels.
There were just a few pieces for men on the runway, but Lucero managed to shift easily from Western casual to rock-star glam. Some of his best pieces included a kneelength sherpa coat and a tailored jacket in black leather.
—Alison A. Nieder
