A former lightbulb factory was the gathering spot for Francesco Ragazzi’s latest Palm Angels personages
Amid lasers piercing the darkened space, they marched around like a clan of outsiders subverting classic tartans and hiding behind balaclavas sprouting spikes for Palm Angels.
Sure, they looked every bit intimidating, but suppose they were merely germophobes using extreme measures to avoid contact? To hear Francesco Ragazzi tell it, this was primarily an exercise in mashing up the disparate influences of unadulterated punk with the American Midwest.
Francesco Ragazzi used American Gothic, the famous painting of an elderly rural couple by Grant Wood, as a pattern on workwear shirts or enlarged on a floaty dress.
The treatment Palm Angels used, so, was especially gutsy as a pair of jeans in which their faces wrapped around the wearer’s legs.
Far subtler was the fridge magnet–size image affixed to a back pocket.
Yet the majority of the lineup got its edge from a more familiar mix of branding, remixing, and clashing.
Granted, the permission to role-play in this strange hybrid space will be tempting Palm Angels fans, even just insofar as adding a security tag pin to a bonded tartan bomber or carrying around a lockbox bag.
What’s more, Western belts and spiked slippers underscored how easy it can be to depart from the obvious streetwear tropes.
“Being rebellious is always a part of my collections, but I think this time there’s a really interesting mix, a different perspective,” said the italian designer Francesco Ragazzi.
