Palomo Spain, the star that Spanish fashion needed

The designer Alejandro Gómez Palomo has baptized the models of his second collection of glasses with the names of people around him. "Manuela is named after my mother, who wears glasses," she explains. “Ana is my cousin, she manages the administrative management and she is the one who puts my feet on the ground. Curro is my friend Curro Verdugo, and he is the slimmest and most modern glasses, like him. Petra is what I call Pedro, my best friend and the person who has accompanied me from the beginning and who amuses me the most in the world. And Irene is the girl who makes the productions, she looks for me the fabrics and the suppliers. As it is the model that is being sold the most, she is very proud ”.

At Palomo Spain, the firm he founded in 2016, everything revolves around his personal universe.

That is why the Cordovan enthusiastically embraces the collaboration with the multiópticas giant, which has allowed him to create Palomó, a line of affordable glasses that encapsulate the eccentricity that has made him the closest thing to a fashion star in Spain.

"The key has been to get involved a lot and fight for certain things that I was clear about," he says, refuting the prejudice that collaborating with external companies implies, in one way or another, selling one's soul.

“This has worked because they have given me all the freedom in the world.

It is not an external order in which I send a sketch, charge and that's it.

The glasses are part of my collection ”.

The Gleb model, with clothes from his latest collection, Nuevo Día, and the Petra and Manuela glasses, from Palomó.FEDE DELIBES

In the images in this report, the optical line coexists with Nuevo Día, the fashion collection that Palomo Spain presented virtually in March and is now on sale. Last May his first collaboration with Gaultier also hit the stores, in which he reinterprets the brand's sailor classics. The company is doing well. "We are very motivated, we know what we are doing and we see direct results," explains the designer, who has so far managed to keep the business going with his own activity, something that previously seemed unlikely. “We have already understood how we work, what the customer likes and how they buy. Hence the optimism. After five years, we are in a precious moment. I am no longer such a wayward boy as I was at first. We are more rational and that is why the company has a future ”.

Palomo Spain broke into the off programming of the official MBFW Madrid catwalk in 2016. He was a stranger, a boy who had just come from London College of Fashion. “In London I became the person that I am and put my whole past in order, understood what it was and connected with my roots,” he recalls. And those roots are in Posadas, the town of Córdoba to which he has returned to build a firm that addresses current debates around gender from the ground up. Those attending that first show saw it: on the catwalk, adolescent models appropriated ornaments usually reserved for female party and ceremony fashion. Translated into the male body of the 21st century, those ideas puzzled. And bewilderment, the opposite of indifference, is the best reaction fashion can elicit. "Peter,people have to leave the parade wondering who this guy is, what did he come for, "he recalls telling his best friend, who is today his press agent.

Palomo Spain poses with a sweatshirt with his signature logo and hat.FEDE DELIBES

The first parade was followed by others in the Royal Theater, the Museum of Natural Sciences, the Lázaro Galdiano Museum, Paris and New York. As the collections became more dazzling and the awards surfaced - in 2018 he won Who's On Next, awarded by Vogue Spain - an increasingly pressing question floated in the atmosphere: how to make all this profitable? The Cordovan assures that he felt the sword of Damocles whistle a few inches from his head. “From the beginning I knew that, just as they put me through the roof, as soon as I failed they were going to put me as the worst. People were expectant. And we have been in many moments close to that ruin ”. Paradoxically, the formula to stay afloat has been found during the pandemic. “This year we have understood that we have to function as what we are,a company that bills what it bills and a brand with a tremendous international community. And to get here we have had to spend years thinking that the solution to all problems was to say that we needed more money, or a bigger showroom. Good thing that has never happened. In the end, we managed to get things done with a lot of effort and we loaded up all that stale system. It's super satisfying. "

The Ibou model, with clothes and accessories from Palomo Spain.FEDE DELIBES

In Posadas, most of the garments are created and made, which, for sale in the house's online store, are sent to clients from all over the world. Palomo Spain may be too radical a firm for the Spanish market, but not for a global audience that, in the era of social networks, is made up of both fans who run out of t-shirts in a few minutes and collectors who demand their most important pieces. complex. In Spain, Palomo's popularity has skyrocketed after his participation as a jury in the Maestros de la sewing talent show. “At first I was very scared. Many people saw it as fatal. But now I can only do positive reading. That a boy like me, with heels and a Manila shawl, is on Spanish Television speaking with such a groundbreaking message is relevant ”.Another talent from Cordoba has emerged on television, a manners and sophisticated naturalness that allows him to connect with different generations. “When I was little I was a wonderful child and I had my group of friends, but what I liked was spending my breaks talking about clothes with the teachers. I've always had that old man inside me who has given me a lot of maturity ”. The truth is that there is some old familiarity in the way in which, during the photos, the members of the team suggest ideas and paste floral prints, pastel garments and glasses against the modernist background of the Fuente del Berro park. In the distance the M-30 roars softly. From the top of the steps, a splendid peacock watches the photo session. With her feather fan folded, you could almost say she's jealous.a natural and sophisticated manners that allows you to connect with different generations. “When I was little I was a wonderful child and I had my group of friends, but what I liked was spending my breaks talking about clothes with the teachers. I've always had that old man inside me who has given me a lot of maturity ”. The truth is that there is some old familiarity in the way in which, during the photos, the members of the team suggest ideas and paste floral prints, pastel garments and glasses against the modernist background of the Fuente del Berro park. In the distance the M-30 roars softly. From the top of the steps, a splendid peacock watches the photo session. With her feather fan folded, you could almost say she's jealous.a natural and sophisticated manners that allows you to connect with different generations. “When I was little I was a wonderful child and I had my group of friends, but what I liked was spending my breaks talking about clothes with the teachers. I've always had that old man inside me who has given me a lot of maturity ”. The truth is that there is some old familiarity in the way in which, during the photos, the members of the team suggest ideas and paste floral prints, pastel garments and glasses against the modernist background of the Fuente del Berro park. In the distance the M-30 roars softly. From the top of the steps, a splendid peacock watches the photo session. With her feather fan folded, you could almost say she's jealous.But what I liked was spending my breaks talking about clothes with the teachers. I've always had that old man inside me who has given me a lot of maturity ”. The truth is that there is some old familiarity in the way in which, during the photos, the members of the team suggest ideas and paste floral prints, pastel garments and glasses against the modernist background of the Fuente del Berro park. In the distance the M-30 roars softly. From the top of the steps, a splendid peacock watches the photo session. With her feather fan folded, you could almost say she's jealous.But what I liked was spending my breaks talking about clothes with the teachers. I've always had that old man inside me who has given me a lot of maturity ”. The truth is that there is some old familiarity in the way in which, during the photos, the members of the team suggest ideas and paste floral prints, pastel garments and glasses against the modernist background of the Fuente del Berro park. In the distance the M-30 roars softly. From the top of the steps, a splendid peacock watches the photo session. With her feather fan folded, you could almost say she's jealous.the team members suggest ideas and paste floral prints, pastel garments and glasses against the modernist backdrop of the Fuente del Berro park. In the distance the M-30 roars softly. From the top of the steps, a splendid peacock watches the photo session. With her feather fan folded, you could almost say she's jealous.the team members suggest ideas and paste floral prints, pastel garments and glasses against the modernist backdrop of the Fuente del Berro park. In the distance the M-30 roars softly. From the top of the steps, a splendid peacock watches the photo session. With her feather fan folded, you could almost say she's jealous.

Photography assistant: Bosco GM.

Makeup: Lucas Margarit.

Models: Gleb Abrosimovv (Elite Barcelona) / Ibou (Gaze Cast).

Production: Pelonio Press.

Palomo wears the Blue Brocade Safari Jacket from its Palomo Spain brand;

Curro glasses, by Palomó;

pants by Levi's and sneakers by Converse.FEDE DELIBES