If you have to take an hourlong drive to a show during fashion week, you might as well do it at sunset on the Westside Highway, overlooking the orange-glazed Hudson, blasting “Chan Chan” by Compay Segundo out the window of an Escalade, dripping in diamonds, massive Chanel bag in tow. That’s how Peso Pluma does it, anyway.
When I ask the Mexican singer, rapper, and record label CEO–born Hassan Emilio Kabande Laija–to introduce himself for a ride-along video to accompany this interview, he takes the mic with bravado: “Hi GQ, I’m him. The Double P. Peso Pluma in the house.”
Double P, who dropped his album DINASTÍA last year, is on his way to the Luar Spring/Summer ‘27 show at the Unisphere, a tremendous 120-foot-wide stainless steel globe in Flushing Meadows, right next to the recently concluded US Open. The choice of location was a homecoming for designer Raul Lopez, who hails from Queens. The show, titled “Christopher Street Columbus,” is a convergence of two Christophers: Christopher Street, the epicenter of the queer nightlife scene where Lopez came of age; and Christopher Columbus, who, for the Dominican-American designer, represents the inextricable haunt of colonization.
It’s a bit of a trek from the city, but Peso is excited for the show. “I got invited by Raul to last year’s runway, and it was pretty dope,” he says. “It was a different runway from the ones that I’ve been to, and I just loved it. I just love how the Latino community was supported by Raul.”
Hector Rodriguez / Courtesy of Peso Pluma
He’s fully fitted out in Luar, of course, but it’s hot out, so he’s only wearing half the look for the ride (the jacket’s in the trunk until we arrive). For now, he’s sporting light brown pinstripe trousers, black boots, and a ribbed white tank that shows off his many tattoos, at least some of which I think he settled on during a previous GQ interview.
Peso, a self-proclaimed “accessories guy,” has topped off the look with a pair of ‘90s-style tiny sunglasses, an armful of diamond bracelets, and a pretty serious watch (for the heads: an AP Royal Oak Flying Tourbillon Operworked). I ask what his most recent big purchase was, and he lights up.
“Get me the Chanel bag,” he smiles, hands come-hithering. Here it is: a big-ass bowling bag in brown suede. GQ, by the way, formally endorses bags of this size, so much so that we devoted a whole page to them in our September print issue.)
