“Turn This Fucking Butt Plug Off”: Meet Rubber Sculptor Rich Aybar

After adorning the runway for Luar’s Fall/Winter 2024 show, “Deceptionista,” with “chic horny” rubber sculptures, the stylist turned furniture designer Rich Aybar called up the brand’s founder and creative director, Raul Lopez, to discuss the inspiration behind his sensuous home objects.

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WEDNESDAY 6:45 PM FEB. 28, 2024 PARIS

RICH AYBAR: Hello.

RAUL LOPEZ: There she goes.

AYBAR: Viva la dimelo Seneida.

LOPEZ: Aqui en la casa. Just like, chilling, relaxing.

AYBAR: Tranquila, quieta.

LOPEZ: Tranquilita mi amor. Ya tú sabes dandolo todo.

AYBAR: Mira que ando con perra. Puedes verla?

LOPEZ: It’s like, blur.

AYBAR: Dime entonces, dime la verdad. How did it go with your collection?

LOPEZ: Good, I mean, tú sabes, craziness.

AYBAR: What did you do to relax after?

LOPEZ: I went to Mexico.

AYBAR: A botar el golpe?

LOPEZ: Yeah, just to relax, mi amor.

AYBAR: I went to Paris, but not to relax. I have another exhibition here. And now that I’m here in Europe, I’m feeling very “bonsoir.” [Laughs]

LOPEZ: Feeling very “bonsoir” in Paris. Eso me gusta, mi amor. Dime, y esta llamada?

AYBAR: Vamos a hablar un poco para Interview de la colaboración de nosotros. We were friends for a long time but never worked together. Actually, that’s not true. We did a couple of shows, right? With me as a stylist?

LOPEZ: Yeah. For my first women’s show.

AYBAR: So, I guess it’s only a natural progression that we would work together in this new iteration with me as a furniture designer.

LOPEZ: A kinky furniture designer.

AYBAR: It’s important to be a little bit Kinky Gerlinky, let people know that there’s space for chic horniness.

LOPEZ: Yes. I think everybody loves chic horny. I feel like people have this thing where it’s taboo to say that they like anal plugs and silicone. And bitch, everyone does it. It’s more about the fact that it’s furniture and you can’t really tell what it is, but then when you see it, you gag.

AYBAR: It’s obvious. But then, you—

LOPEZ: Act like it’s not. It’s like when you see something in your mom’s drawer, and you’re like, “Oh my god, is this a vibrator?” And then you close the drawer and act like it’s not there.

AYBAR: Even if you don’t know it’s a vibrator, there’s a talismanic energy on it. You know that it’s charged with something that is not for you. Also when you’re trying to skip over that first point of entry, that first reference, there are other definitions that start coming out of it. You’re like, “Oh, there’s a historical reference. There’s consideration about the material.” The conversation opens up a little bit. And that’s where I wanted to be. I was so happy to see it as a chandelier, to see it dangling in the crowd, to see everybody standing around it.

LOPEZ: Oh my god. I couldn’t bear watching that thing hanging.

AYBAR: [Laughs]

LOPEZ: I was like, “Turn this fucking butt plug off now.” It was so funny because it’s a room full of so many mixed genres of people—there were a lot of straight dudes, and a lot of cis people. I was dying laughing. I was like, if this thing doesn’t stop staring at me. I’m like, “It’s fucking carrying.”

AYBAR: The amount of pictures of celebrities hanging around butt plugs. I was like, okay, this is a moment.

LOPEZ: I know. [Laughs] I think what you’re doing is so necessary right now. I love walking into your studio and you’re like, “I just came here at 3 a.m. I was drunk and I just started making 50 new pieces.” And I’m like, “Oh my god, she’s raging.” You’re a Scorpio, I’m a Scorpio, and Scorpios—first they are serpents, then they shed into a scorpion, and then they become a phoenix. You’re in your phoenix era, where you’re just, like, “I rose from the ashes and I’m doing what I got to do.”

AYBAR: I’m definitely feeling the fire. Like you said, I love coming into my studio at all times of night, just inspired, and getting into it. There’s a lot of measured thinking, but sometimes there’s also this unbridled energy. I’m super grateful to have a space to do that in, and to give myself that space. And I’m happy that I have an audience for it.

LOPEZ: When you do something that’s organic and true to you, it really tells a story, and people gravitate to that. I like to make things that make people feel powerful when they walk into a room— that want to be seen. And with your pieces, even if it’s the most meticulous little vase, it’s going to stand out because of the texture and the material and how you craft it.

AYBAR: Our Dominican sense of show-queen-ness definitely comes through. The show pony is always going to be present and try to figure out a way to pop off. [Laughs]

LOPEZ: One hundred percent. I think that has a lot to do with how we were raised, and our culture. Dominicans, we love to show out.

AYBAR: That’s why I thought it was funny when you were like, “I can’t with your lamp, it’s eating me out at my own show. I got to turn that bitch off.” [Laughs] I saw some photos of all these skater dudes standing around it. I was like, “This is cool.”

LOPEZ: That’s why I wanted it there. Everybody is in this furniture obsession era. Furniture is the new sex symbol. Guys want to furnish, so girls can be like, “Oh, he has taste.” You can tell what kind of guy you are by the furniture you have.

AYBAR: That is interesting when you talk about the idea of taste, because I don’t know if what I’m doing could be considered to be—

LOPEZ: Tasteful?

AYBAR: Because it obliquely references sex toys or sex practices, like the rimming stool, and the sounding lamps. It’s definitely drawing this reference if you do a little digging. But I’m also interested in this idea that you can be attracted to the object as a thing, regardless of what its source code is, whether it’s a butt plug or not. But when you confront it, it’s an illumination, it’s a lamp. So you’re distinguishing what your appetites are. And also you’re portraying your horniness. I was really excited to do those bracelets for the show, by the way. I never thought about doing anything wearable.

LOPEZ: I know. We’ve been talking about it for a while, too.

AYBAR: Yeah. I’ve been trying to challenge myself, and to incorporate the metal and the rubber, that to me, was exciting. I was proud of it, actually. I think she kind of tore.

LOPEZ: Jon and Kate Plus 8.

AYBAR: [Laughs] So yeah, I guess that is where the genesis was. I made the bracelet and then it was like, let’s also do the furniture. It is very metrosexual to be concerned about your space. Keep it clean, very Patrick Bateman, very American Psycho. Which is kind of also my corner where I want to be a little bit—

LOPEZ: Kinky.

AYBAR: Kinky, but also precise. Thinking about shit on a very intense level. Like the whole American Psycho obsession over the thickness of the business card stock. I’m just like, “These obsessive girls get it, and I’m glad to be speaking to them. Let’s talk.”

LOPEZ: I love it. And for me, it’s also kind of like being in sex ed. You always have one or two idiots that are like, “Yo, not the penis.” You know? But everyone is intrigued and wants to know about it. I think that’s how the furniture is.

AYBAR: I love how you put it at the beginning where you’re like, you’re young, you found your parents’ sex toy in a drawer. You know there’s something up with that, but you’re like, “Should I keep away from it, or am I attracted to it?” And that is a really great place of innocence that’s sublimated here. There’s something limbic that’s drawing you to it. I love thinking about it like that.

LOPEZ: Of course.

AYBAR: So I’m going to go, because it’s late. I have an opening in Paris tonight with Dan [Thawley, the artistic director of Matter and Shape]. So I’m showing some more things here, and then we’re going off to dinner. I’ll call you tomorrow.

LOPEZ: Okay, I love you.

AYBAR: I love you. See you next week.

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Grooming: Adam Markarian using Oribe Hair Care.

Photography Assistant: Andrew Espinal.

Fashion Assistant: Nicholson Baird.

Location: WSA.