Luza, Reynaldo

Reynaldo Luza was a fashion artist born in Lima, Peru. He began his education as an architect at the University of Louvain in Belgium but returned to Peru with the outbreak of World War I, where he shifted his studies from architecture to art. In 1918, he arrived in the United States, where he made a living contributing drawings to various fashion publications, primarily Vogue, Harper's Bazaar, and Vanity Fair. In 1921, he joined Harper's Bazaar as the principal fashion artist, a position he held for 27 years. He divided his time between New York, Paris, and London, working closely with all the major fashion designers of the time: Poiret, Patou, Lelong, Paquin, Douillet, Doucet, Cheruit, Worth, Drecoll, Callot Soeurs, Redfern, Martial et Amand, Premet, Reboux, Chanel, Vionnet, Molyneaux, Schiaparelli, Hartnell, Steibel, and Balenciaga, among others. In 1940, Luza made New York his primary base, where over the following years, he continued his work at Harper's, as well as creating fabric and furniture designs, and costumes for the film "The Bridge of San Luis Rey." Among other honors, he received several honorary appointments from the government of Peru, including Artistic Director of the 1938 Paris Exhibition and the 1939-40 New York World's Fair; he also designed the interior of the new Lima airport.