Palomo Spain Packs a Fashion Punch
The who’s who of the Spanish fashion world converged on the Hotel Wellington on the opening night of Mercedes Benz Fashion Week Madrid to see the white hot designer Alejandro Gómez Palomo’s latest collection. His Palomo Spain brand, that he started in 2015, was suddenly thrust into the spotlight three months ago. That was when Beyoncé decided to wear one of his floral menswear pieces for her first official photo with her twins, Rumi and Sir. And now everyone is curious to see what all the fuss is about.
Beyoncé carrying her new born twins in Palomo’s floral pieces
Well there is a lot to fuss over. He has enough pull right now to have both Pedro Almodóvar and Lindsay Lohan sitting in his front row of his show. He audaciously re-baptized the Madrid landmark “The Palomo Hotel” for the event. And, most importantly, his work is giving the fashion industry a line up of clothing that knows no boundaries.
Lindsay Lohan and Pedro Almodovar, who were both sitting front row at Palomo’s SS18 presentation
“Of course, it changed things,” said Palomo in an exclusive interview before the show about the Beyoncé effect. “I kind of have the same excitement as I do before every show, but I feel like this is almost like my first show. We’ve put in the same effort, but things have changed a lot and we’ve gone much bigger. We always wanted to do something this special and it just feels incredible,” he added.
Palomo calls himself a menswear designer, that is what he studied during his time at the London College of Fashion, and yet his theatrical outfits can easily cross gender lines. His clothing is not so much focused on a person’s sex, but rather their level of sartorial daring.
“People get too stuck in this idea that they do clothes for men or for women… I just wanted to give it a twist. You know, women are welcome to wear my clothes as well and they look as good as boys. I just feel closer to the boys,” said Palomo.
But he does have a lot of powerful women in his life. A handful of which he honored by having them walk the catwalk for him in this collection. They included his agent Águeda Amiano, the iconic film actress Rossy de Palma who said Palomo “was like family” to her, artist Soraya Rosales and business woman Samantha Vallejo-Nágera. The designer dressing them up in bold fluid confections that had each of them playing the part of a glamourous guest at the Hotel Palomo.
Rossy de Palma making a great entrance at #HotelPalomo
The entire show was a parade of characters who work (bellhops, concierges, maids) stay (grand dames, divas and spa guests) or party in their best OTT outfits in the designer’s all-inclusive hotel. “My style is a complete freedom for men to dress up as what is their desire,” said the designer. “I do it for boys that really enjoy fashion and want to have fun with it,” he added.
There is a boldness to Palomo and a joyful abandonment to his well-constructed designs. Designs that, this season, included a shear white feather embellished gown that left the derriere fully exposed, a beaded halter top and matching bellbottom pants in a lush brocade fabric and fitted white terry cloth suiting. Clearly his imagination is overflowing with ideas, but also there is a meticulousness to Palomo’s work. The hotel door handle handbags and room key (number 13 or 69) earrings in the show attest to that.
Being a fashion designer is what Palomo always knew he wanted to do. Growing up in the small town of Córdoba, in the South of Spain, he admitted that by the age of six he already knew what he wanted to do with his life. “I grew up like a completely normal child, but I knew from the very beginning that what I liked was fashion because, I played with Barbies, I watch fashion shows on TV, I couldn’t stop sketching. And then one day my father said: ” you know, you should be a fashion designer”. So in school, when they would ask you “what do you want to be as an adult?” others would say things like I want to be an astronaut, or a doctor, me I always answered “I wanted to be a fashion designer”.
As the finally of the Palomo show came to a climatic finish, with both guests and models dancing in joyful celebration of a 67 look collection, a line-up that was so well executed it went by in the blink of an eye, it was hard not to imagine it making for the perfect ending to a new Almodóvar film.
And who knows…the iconic writer and director is reportedly already working on his next script. The pairing of these two artists could be kismet.
Jessica Michault is the Senior Vice President of industry relations at GPS Radar by Launchmetrics. She is also the editor-at-large for ODDA magazine and contributes to publications like the New York Times, the Business of Fashion, Vogue, Harper's Bazaar and Mixte magazine.
Jessica Michault
Jessica Michault is the Senior Vice President of industry relations at GPS Radar by Launchmetrics. She is also the editor-at-large for ODDA magazine and contributes to publications like the New York Times, the Business of Fashion, Vogue, Harper's Bazaar and Mixte magazine.
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