The best way to accessorize an unmissable menswear look—black shirt, pink pants, and green bow cummerbund? According to Alejandro Gómez Palomo, it’s a copy of Virginia Woolf’s Orlando, a novel about a time-traveling protagonist who is born a man and becomes a woman. It seems a fitting choice for a designer who exploded traditional ideas of masculinity before launching womenswear in June 2025.
Palomo called his collection Arcadia. “You know how I approach my universe and my designs, it’s always about this wonderful, beautiful, ideal society where everyone is glamorous and beautiful and we all live happily ever after in peace and everyone is welcome,” he said. The designer is on to something with this idea of equality, especially when applied to his approach to designing for him and her. Palomo is still learning how to mesh womenswear with his core, menswear, while at the same time making his mark in ready-to-wear, which is challenging. Happily, he didn’t seem to overthink the gender divide this season: it was cargos, rhinestones, and feathers for all, but that’s not to say the models wore the same designs sized differently.
The main theme was offering casual classics in luxurious fabrics or in a bedazzled manner. The denim, including jeans adorned with rhinestone couched feathers, or with studs arranged in a rose pattern, was especially convincing. Palomo was particularly proud of the trim women’s pantsuit and the bias-cut slip dress, both in vibrant red.
There were OTT looks too: a fabric beaded with rows of fringed scallops was paired with an opulent velvet. The feather looks and accessories have become Palomo staples, maybe too much so.
A pink jacquard dress with a strap that fell off the shoulder seductively worn over a studded white slip with the same silhouette was a nice take on a classic, a description that can’t be applied to the codpiece made using the same fabric, but it was peak Palomo.
