The New York City Ballet’s Fall Gala once again looks to some of the biggest figures in international fashion design to open its season. On this occasion, Alejandro Gómez Palomo from Córdoba, better known for his company Palomo Spain, will be one of the three designers invited to dress the stars of the dance company, along with Belgian designer Raf Simons and English designer Giles Deacon. The three creatives have been brought together — through the grace of actress Sarah Jessica Parker, Vice President of the New York City Ballet — with three choreographers to collaborate on the pieces, which will premiere on September 28 during the 10th Fashion Gala of Fall will. The event has been held since 2012 and is considered the opening event of New York’s cultural season.
This tenth edition is a tribute to Sarah Jessica Parker herself, who promoted this charitable initiative that has helped raise funds for the ballet over the years. On this occasion, Deacon is the first designer to repeat at the gala, while Palomo and Simons will join previous collaborators such as Thom Browne, Dries Van Noten, Sarah Burton, Iris Van Herpen, Carolina Herrera, Zuhair Murad, Zac Posen and Valentino. .
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Palomo Spain will work with choreographer Gianna Reisen on her third ballet for the company. Marc Happel, costume director of the New York City Ballet, has revealed to American media WWD that the choreographer and designer have already settled on a scheme of 10 costumes in different colors, each one set with Swarovski crystals.
The challenge for Palomo Spain and the other designers is to ensure their designs don’t overshadow the dancers’ work, as Marc Happel told the fashion media outlet: “I think on many occasions we find ourselves in situations where the designs are too complex, so they can be distracting, but I hope that it is not the case this time. This gala has really always fought to ensure that the costumes created for the occasion play a prominent role on stage.” He will oversee the designers in adapting the costumes and mobility on stage until the end of September.
“Many believed that our success would be the flower of the day. And it wasn’t like that,” the Cordovan designer commented in an interview with the media last May. At just 30 years old, he presented his first collection in 2016 in the off program of the official MBFW catwalk in Madrid and in 2018 he won the Who’s On Next award for young designers, awarded by the Spanish edition of Vogue magazine The Palomo brand Spain has managed to dress international names like Beyoncé herself, who used one of her designs to present her newborn twins, Harry Styles, Miley Cyrus or Rita Ora. He was also recently responsible for designing Chanel Terrero’s wardrobe for her performance at the Eurovision Song Contest. “Funny, controversial and a little disturbing”, as Daniel García, the director of ICON, defined him in his May letter on the occasion of the cover that the designer starred in EL PAÍS men’s fashion magazine, the truth is that Alejandro Gómez Palomo has it managed to escape labels and pigeonholes and show that dressing celebrities and being lauded for their collections halfway around the world doesn’t conflict with appearing on family reality shows like Sewing Masters – recently discontinued by RTVE (and to give an example).
It won’t be the first time that Palomo Spain has put his designs at the service of dance: in 2018, the Paris Opera premiered Spanish choreographer Iván Pérez’s play The Male Dancer, a queer ballet that challenges traditional masculinity through movement , and for whose wardrobe the designer was responsible, who dressed the dancers in extravagant outfits symbolic with sequins, ruffles or feathers and who, as Palomo himself stated to this newspaper at the time, is one of the moments of his life he remembers most fondly. At least until next September 28th.