Yahoo Lifestyle EXCLUSIVE: MAC Cosmetics Is Giving Luar’s Ana Bag a Makeover
MAC Cosmetics and Luar are back at it again — this time, with a bag launch that entails more than meets the eye.
The longtime collaborators, whose joint histories date back to the early 2000s when Luar founder and creative director Raul Lopez worked for years as a cash coordinator at the MAC store in Macy’s Herald Square in New York, have teamed up to introduce a limited-edition iteration of Luar’s signature Ana bag.
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Coming in black faux ostrich leather and embossed with the Luar and MAC logos in silver hardware on either side, the bag is a sized-up version of the Ana, complete with interior pockets and elastics meant to hold one’s makeup brushes and products as well as other, everyday items.
“I always wanted to do a makeup brush belt, but in our own way,” said Lopez, a third-generation designer who cofounded streetwear brand Hood by Air in 2006 and went on to launch Luar in 2011. “I used to dump everything out of my MAC brush belt and wear it as a layer of my clothing — it looked like a little skirt that I would drape around myself.”
A hybrid between MAC’s signature artist brush belt and Luar’s tentpole “It” accessory, the bag will debut on the runway at Luar’s 2025 ready-to-wear presentation on Monday, for which MAC is the makeup sponsor. The limited-edition bag will be available for purchase for $295 beginning Tuesday at maccosmetics.com.
“The MAC brush belt is such an iconic makeup artist component; putting that together — even down to the leather on the inside of the bag being the leather we use for the brush belt — with Raul’s iconic Ana silhouette and turning it into a makeup bag — that’s what takes this collaboration to the next level and makes it so special,” said Drew Elliott, global creative director of MAC.
“I want people to wear it — not just for the makeup — but to wear it in general; you can be on the go after work and carry it without it looking like you’re carrying a literal brush bag,” said Lopez, whose friendship with Elliott also dates back to the early 2000s.
“We were club kids together,” said Elliott, harkening back to the golden days of New York’s Cuckoo Club and GHE20G0TH1K, a club night hosted by Lopez’s Hood by Air cofounder Shayne Oliver into the 2010s.
“To know Raul is to support him in his vision, and from his days as cash coordinator to now, where he’s built Luar into a cornerstone of New York Fashion Week — MAC is so excited to be a part of it,” Elliott said.
The feeling is mutual.
“MAC kind of molded me in a lot of ways. I still keep in contact with my old managers — they used to call me ‘thugalina’ because I was so crazy,” laughed Lopez, adding of his longstanding fashion week partnership with MAC, which last season brought leopard-printed eyelids and vinyl, faux-python brows to the catwalk: “The makeup always brings the story together. I am not ‘quiet luxury’ — I love to see a lot of makeup.”
“And MAC is the ‘makeup’ makeup brand,” Elliott added.
“It felt right for us to do something now, and for me, it’s a full-circle moment,” Lopez said.
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