Multi-talented Italian designer aleXsandro Palombo is well known for his striking colour combinations and for the voluminous and unusual shapes of his knitwear creations. During the ‘90s Palombo worked for various maisons based in Milan, Paris and Hong Kong. In 1998 he launched his own fashion house, producing collections that never followed any particular trend, but were the result of his surreal visions, inspired by art, fashion, dreams, traditions and religion.
Last year Palombo joined forces with French L'Arsoie, a famous manufacturer of haute couture hosiery since the early ‘20s under the brand Cervin Paris, and produced a high fashion collection called "aleXsandro Palombo by Cervin Paris". The 100% made in France brand always had the reputation of producing very fine stockings characterised by a unique transparency that were favoured by many famous icons of fashion and cinema, from Marilyn Monroe and Catherine Deneuve to Dita von Teese. The Palombo collection for Cervin Paris featured his signature designs and colour combinations, but also precious embroideries and high quality materials such as cashmeres and silks.
Palombo’s new project is not a special collection or collaboration but a book. Entitled Vanitas, Inshallah - XI anni di onirico colore (Vanitas, Inshallah – 11 years of oneiric colour), the volume is going to be released in February by Hazard Edizioni as part of its imprint dedicated to great illustrators “Chic et Simpliciter”, that also features books by Ruben Toledo, Antonio Lopez and François Berthoud.
The book features around 100 illustrations by Palombo in which the designer analyses eleven years of his creations, accompanied by a symbolical figure, a melancholic yet exuberant little clown called Vanitas who, turning into a Virgil-like figure, guides him through the personal memories and dreams behind Palombo's collections. The reader joins them through this journey, takes part in the making of the various garments and sits down in the front row to see the final catwalk, which represents the climax of this adventure into the world of fashion. During the final catwalk Vanitas presents Palombo’s new creations while the designer makes a satire of the fashion universe and of its main representatives.
In his previous collections and catwalks Palombo explored religious themes, but also the clashes between the East and the West and the Christian and Islamic worlds, with models wearing balaclavas, military symbols and keffieyhs, this is why in the book there are references to Oriana Fallaci, the Italian author and journalist who produced great pieces of journalism for decades, but focused in later years on writing against Islam.
The book also features brief pieces by people who met Palombo and had the chance of getting to know his work and personality.
There are some elements in Vanitas - the figure of the clown, the chromatically vivid illustrations and the dreamy moods - that make me think about Federico Fellini’s atmospheres and drawings. I hope Hazard Edizioni will publish further fashion illustration titles in 2009, I would really love to see volumes by David Downtown and Steven Broadway.
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