Palm Angels Collab Limited Edition
Palm Angels has revisited the Tod's tabs sneaker for fall.
Francesco Ragazzi, founder and creative director of the brand, has updated the classic style with his own vision, adding a ‘70s touch to the construction of the tongue. The toe cap has been revised for a more modern look, and on the tongue and on the back stands out the Palm Angels logo in gold Lurex. Tod's T is embossed on the lace loop and on the back.
A black leather palm tree is stretched at the sides of the upper, and Tod's signature Gommino pebble details are transformed into a decoration, placed in the back.
“Supporting Made in
Italy is key to me, part of my own history and I have a passion for products that are well- made,” said Ragazzi, praising Tod's chairman Diego Della
Valle for his own belief in Italian craftsmanship. “To collaborate with Tod's is a milestone and a pleasure and it teaches me so much.”
Last year, Palm Angels was part of a collaboration with Tod's and Moncler, with a dedicated communication campaign fronted by Naomi Campbell.
Ragazzi grew up wearing Tod's, he recalls, and said “the values it expresses are linked to our culture of beauty and recognized globally.”
The Palm Angels x Tod's sneakers, available for both men and women, will be released on Thursday at Palm Angels boutiques worldwide, on Tod's and Palm Angels online stores, and at selected international wholesalers. Ragazzi teased the launch during the Palm Angels show in Paris last March.
Separately, Palm Angels said it is opening a new boutique on Thursday within the Bangkok Central Embassy. The store walls are covered in raffia and bleached cedar wood stands out on the main display. Black Marquina and Calacatta red marbles are also key elements of the store, which carries the brand's collaborations as well, including with Moncler Genius.
Palm Angels is expanding its retail network, following the opening of a store in New York last month.
The company currently has a unit at the Wynn in Las Vegas as well as in the Design District in Miami, where plans include doubling the store size. Following the SoHo store, which measures 2,300 square feet, Palm Angels will open a store at South Coast Plaza in Costa Mesa, Calif., by the end of the year. There are a total of 13 Palm Angels stores in the world, including units in its hometown of Milan as well as Paris.
Paul Smith on Wednesday unveiled the second iteration of the & PaulSmith collaboration series with the New York- based label Commission, founded by Dylan Cao and Jin Kay, following an inaugural capsule with the Londonbased designer Priya Ahluwalia.
The 22- piece capsule collection features a long wool- cashmere overcoat, a structured double- breasted brown worsted wool suit, and a yellow leather field jacket, as well as wardrobe staples with accentuated details like point collars, low peak lapels, on- seam pockets, slightly fatherly stripes and bold red touches.
As "an apparent synergy" was formed from the first meeting, both sides began to on a collection mostly inspired by "Father & Son," a book of photographs taken by Smith and his father Harold Smith, published after the latter's passing in 2000.
The idea of family resonated with Commission's ethos. The brand offers modern outfits fit for the Big Apple lifestyle with their Eastern point of view. Cao and Kay are firstgeneration U. S. immigrants from Vietnam and South Korea, respectively. They launched the brand in 2018 with the goal to reframe and elevate how Asian culture is represented in Western fashion.
Very often, the brand's collections are based on the wardrobes of their parents' generation, bringing back elements of nostalgia and uniform dressing, often pulled from straight from family photo albums.
Paul Smith's archive in Nottingham, collections from 1997 to 1998 and
2002 to 2003 to be precise, also served as a source of inspiration to the duo behind Commission.
"Tapping into new ideas is exactly why I wanted to start the & PaulSmith series," Smith said. "Commission are brimming with them. I also have a huge sense of pride in our archive and I'm so glad that Cao and Kay have been inspired by pieces from past collections and put their own truly unique spin on them."
The duo added: "There's a richness to his archive during the late ' 90s that resonates with us, where its masculinity seemed like a mash- up of preppy, sex and post- punk, yet highly functional and romantic. Our approach to products and storytelling was similar in that it's an eclectic mismatch of various narratives and undercurrents."
The CFDA acted as a broker in this collaboration, as it presented a shortlist of candidates for the collaboration by private referral.
As part of the collaboration, Paul Smith will also provide mentorship to Commission.
— TIANWEI ZHANG