At the time of the meeting with ABC, at his home and in his workshop in Posadas, a few days ago, Palomo was preparing, a few hours away, to take a plane that would take him to Miami and then to Mexico. “We have managed to create a fairly stable community of customers around the world, particularly in the United States, where the brand is more consolidated,” explains the man who recently wowed at New York Fashion Week and won the National this year. Award. Design granted by the Ministry of Culture. She dressed Beyoncé, among other “celebrities”, and Chanel for Eurovision. In addition, Alejandro Gómez Palomo (1992) reached millions of homes in the country through TVE’s “Masters of Sewing” program – What does a child of Posadas think when he walks down Fifth Avenue and sees the one of his models in a store. window?-(Laughs) Well, specifically, one thing happened to me on Fifth Avenue, with the Puma store full of Palomos. We worked with Puma and my father and his friends went to New York and they sent me a photo of everyone at the door… It’s a huge satisfaction that tells you that you are doing your job well, that the work is worth this and that in the end In the end, you have something to say and to contribute to the world of fashion. Since I came into this world, I have made a big impact and been able to live the dream all this time. -How do you experience the creative process, how do you arrive at designs? -Well, am I still creating? stories. There is a moment of “research”, of searching for information which can last for months, where you constitute your universe, and where you look for fabrics for everything you need. From an idea, you inform yourself and take the ideas wherever you find them, from music to cinema to museums… all Standard Related News No Palomo Spain receives the 2024 National Fashion Prize María I . Ortiz-Is it a spark? Is there anything that jumps out at you? – Yes of course. There’s a moment when you say: ‘Ah, ok, I already understand where I want to go, the character of this season goes here or there and his feelings there: he hides, he wants to be seen, he wants to rummage..’-Because you think of a costume as a story.-Yes. When I make collections, I like to tell a story so that people understand it: you see it almost like a film. And to understand these costumes and put the world and the model in a situation, there must be a feeling behind them, a way of being. Reviews – Have you ever been told that your designs are frivolous? – No, that wasn’t a word? that they are used to criticizing me. I received criticism for lack of understanding, especially at the beginning it was more difficult for me to be taken seriously, especially in some conservative media, who said that what I was doing was women’s and men’s clothing – And does it hurt you? It doesn’t hurt me but it seems like a lack of understanding, because that’s not it: when we design clothes on a man’s body, what I think is that I’m putting a piece of fabric on a body, I don’t think it’s even a woman’s or a man’s. For me, these terms are obsolete. – So I don’t believe in gender as something impermeable. – I don’t believe in gender as a way to necessarily define aesthetics. – And the person? – Well, the person. .. According to sit down. I think there are many possibilities today. And I think ultimately the absolute reason for the Palomo brand and for doing what I did is because I felt an immense freedom to do it. And what guides me in life is the desire for absolute freedom, to be able to do well or to be what we want, and this logically also applies to the sexual orientations or options that we choose. in life. I fought like no one else for Spanish fashion to have a place at the international level and I think we are the ones who have succeeded the most in recent times. It is an immense pride that thanks to the fashion that we have created, there has been a contribution to culture, that we have been able to open minds and change people: to give many young people a place that they do not have. perhaps not had, giving them the opportunity to grow with a reference site where everything is possible, as is the case with Palomo. The most beautiful and satisfying thing about my work is this contribution to freedom, to inclusiveness… that this message has penetrated so many social aspects and that it has brought something beyond a garment. – Will you open doors with your creations? – Yes, I felt that way and I heard many testimonies directly; The boys came to me and told me. I saw it for example in Moscow: children from all over Russia came to do my show simply to have this moment of well-being. Their first collection was based on Virginia Woolf’s character Orlando. Suggestive…-Yes, I’m always looking for a story to try and tell my own, and Orlando gave me a perfect excuse and context to launch myself into the world with an idea that I’ve realized so far to this day, and that is my message. -And what is this message? -This character, Orlando, who almost oscillates in gender throughout the story, plays a bit, because he wakes up one day and is a man and the next day he is a woman. There’s this duality within the character that appeals to me so much: one day you can feel more feminine and dress a certain way, and another day you can play the complete opposite. And in this story, there is still one very interesting thing, and that is time travel, because the history of Orlando spans the centuries, and that is exactly what is behind my collections. I try to understand the past of men’s and women’s clothing in order to project it into the future. This is what Palomo Spain has been so far, this play on the masculine and this journey through History. The creator, in his conversation with ABC RAFAEL CARMONAlejandro Gómez Palomo never wanted to be anything other in life than what she is. “Since I was little, I had the dream of being a fashion designer and the people around me knew it too, even more than me sometimes,” says the designer in his house in Posadas. “When I was fourteen I went to London for the first time with school and I fell in love with the city and saw that this was meant to be where I belonged, and that I had to be on the big side masters of fashion, like John Galiano, mainly, then Versace, Lacroix”, he adds. Then, at eighteen and after having finished his selectivity with good grades, he returned to the British capital, seduced by this one, to follow in Galiano’s footsteps, where he trained at the London College of Fashion: there he discovered that what he wanted to dedicate himself to was designing men’s clothing “I think. that through my work, I have come to observe male beauty, for which I have a sort of passion, with a different eye.” will fill a lack of attention to the male body.-There are two On the one hand, I see that there is immense freedom and a gigantic space in which I can experiment, and I also believe that Palomo is born from a need, because I have seen around me and from. my own experience that we also wanted to enjoy fashion. with good embroidery, with a feather, with a rhinestone. And it all comes from buying second-hand clothes in London, forgetting the gender, because you looked in a bucket full of clothes, and you grabbed what you liked, forgetting even what it was. was. I felt, yes, that there was an opportunity to make men’s clothing with much more passion, with much more detail and always relying on the haute couture that I have always loved. And there was also something about the muses, in the way I get inspired: I guess I have a sort of passion for male beauty. In my work, I think I have been able to observe male beauty with a different eye. – Was this beauty the great forgotten one of fashion? – I think that since the end of the 19th century, men in particular had taken a back seat? fashion, and it had been established that the man had to dress in a suit, that was the masculine stereotype, while it was the woman who wore all the decoration, with all the jewelry. The woman is like the vase and the man, well… At a time when we are achieving equality, it was necessary that men could also enjoy fashion. -And are there differences in the way we appreciate fashion and the way we appreciate fashion. What are they doing? – Obviously, because we have different consumption patterns. I saw how everything has changed in recent years, how men have become interested in fashion in the same way as women before, who have always known how to adorn themselves, paint their nails, wear necklaces. Now man has realized that he can do it too and that it highlights new attributes, and that it’s fun -And transgressive too, right? I believe it begins with a transgression. My message was more transgressive before, at the beginning, than now, but then you get used to it. I’ve always believed in pushing the boundaries a little and making people feel something, whether it’s positive or negative. For my part there was no obscene or vulgar provocation but I provoked curiosity, and always with the absolute respect that we have always had for clothing and technique: all this ultimately made my proposal credible , so as not to be bullshit. . I take the clothes I make very seriously, and that’s what has transcended time.Alejandro trained in London RAFAEL CARMONA PROFILE Son of a teacher and politician and restaurant owner A crush on fashion world came to him through television and magazines. “I think I became interested in fashion as soon as I saw a Yves Saint Laurent show on television, when I was six or seven, and my father explained to me what he knew about him “, explains Palomo. “For me, since I was little, my biggest idols have been designers. I drank “Vogue,” “Elle,” and all those publications as if they were books; I bought them at the town kiosk, and I knew everything about the designers, the models… In short, I knew almost more than today: I felt that it was my world, to which I felt , as I say, that I belonged. Alejandro is the only son of a teacher who spent years in politics and a restaurant professional and engineering entrepreneur.
Palomo Spain: “In life, I am guided by a desire for absolute freedom”
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