For Fan Boys, a Fabulous Collaboration Between Palomo and Kausi
Alejandro Gómez Palomo made a strong impression with his gender-fluid approach to fashion when he arrived on the scene in 2017, but he’s not done breaking down barriers yet.
Consider his fall 2020 menswear collection. Referencing both El Greco and rave culture, Palomo played with two notions of ecstasy—one religious, the other pharmaceutical. The looks that went down the runway included ecclesiastical-inspired gear and pearl-embellished pants of enormous proportions, and one very singular accessory. “I thought the element that a Palomo boy would carry to a rave would be a fabulous fan,” the designer told Vogue. One of the visuals Gómez Palomo conjured while designing the collection was “that moment on Sunday mornings when churchgoers and rave-goers would cross on the street and their fans were the only element” they had in common.
The fans the “Palomo boys” carried were made in collaboration with Kausi, a one-year-old Spanish brand. Observing fans being made in Spain for international brands, Kausi cofounders Alejandra Arias and Laura Corces saw a business opportunity. “We were clear from the beginning that we wanted to support Spanish artisan creation,” notes the former. Valencia “has more than 300 years of [fan-making] history and is the only region in Europe where this tradition is preserved by an artisan community.”
Since El Greco’s days, fans have traditionally been depicted as feminine accessories. Regardless of who was using them, fans, until recently, had felt rather recherché and “period.” Fashion’s iconic fan bearer, as Arias notes, was Karl Lagerfeld, whose éventails seemed to be an extension of his 18th-century obsession. That “men would almost feel ashamed to use fans” in 2020, says Gómez Palomo, is representative of “an old-fashioned mentality. This was my chance to offer a more updated way of wearing [one]. I wanted to make the fan something much easier to carry and in a younger and masculine way.”
