Photographer Ionela Bona slips behind the velvet curtain to capture the secrets, textures, and pure drama of Palomo Spain’s latest collection.
Where is the backstage? I inquired as I just went through the doors of the Palace Hotel of Madrid.
It is too large to risk finding it by myself.
The person at the entrance starts giving me quite complex instructions and, as I keep repeating them in my head to not get lost, I stumble upon a crowd of photographers and fancy-dressed youngsters. Logically, I followed them. To end up right at the beginning of the rehearsal.
The music was somehow illuminating a ballroom with glass chairs next to glass tables with glass plastic papers on top of them. Glass chandeliers on the ceilings.
A round platform with flower still life style paintings on the sides, surrounded by columns and covered in a soft thin carpet. In the middle are some fresh flowers. Very Chic, very historical, very Palomo.
There he was, in the middle of the action scene, holding a mic, dressed in a yellow shirt with slender stripes in contrast black. Afanous, looking at everything and everyone, noticing the slightest detail, moving around, immersed in the whole experience. Enjoying passionately this creation of his.
Palomo Spain is a fashion brand launched in 2015 by Alejandro Gómez Palomo, a designer from Posadas, Córdoba, Spain. Known for bold, colorful, and gender-fluid menswear, though now they are doing women’s as well. The brand quickly rose to international fame for its dramatic and provocative style, daring old mindsets to behold the new masculinity.
The creative director was a finalist for the LVMH Prize and earned invitations to show at the Federation de la Haute Couture et de la Mode in Paris.
The collection presented today is named eighteen, 18, dieciocho. Spanish sounds cooler, and this Spanish brand is emancipating from its roots and moving to Madrid. It is also their eighteenth collection. What a celebration. Sofia Coppola has been an inspiration for this collection as well. Her movies and how the characters move and feel in them.
Eighteen years old is coming out of age, legally. Emotionally, you find yourself fighting for the freedom and emancipation you still do not have but dreadfully feel entitled to. Your rules, your ways. Your own space. You are still a teen but with the will to become someone more.
It is so that we find young funny boys and cute girls dressed in soft colors such as water green, pastel pink, and light blue. The style blends historical references with queer aesthetics, as we can find on previous collections, a total brand signature.
This time he plays with short shorts, huge laces that we can find on the shirts, hats and necks. Accessorized with silver glasses that give the final student look. Lace edgings and sheer gloves. Big shapes in white reminiscent of baby clothes contrasted with leather details and strong burgundy colours. Resembling the contrast of being in-between child and adulthood. Lots of sparkling details and natural makeup added to this concept.
It is time for maturity and expansion, for both the brand and the metaphorical child represented through this collection.
Words and photography by Ionela Bona for VEIN MAGAZINE
