Reconsidering the Act of Getting Dressed: A Commentary on Paloma Wool and Sustainability
On an autumn morning, Barcelona is warm and cloudy. Dark, stormy winds accumulate and form thick clouds, growing increasingly unpredictable as the winter months approach. This landscape, in all its glory, is what inspires Paloma Lanna’s designs of ease, simplicity, and comfort; designs based on a city of leisure and creativity, a city composed of community and artisans.
This is Paloma Wool, an independent label brought to life by Paloma Lanna. Founded in April 2014, Lanna blends impressions of community with handcrafted qualities, in an aesthetic inspired by both land and cityscapes. She describes her fabrications as ones in which we can directly interact with our environment, clothes in which we can cross the city on a bike, or sprawl lazily by the sea.
Yet, Lanna is clear that Paloma Wool is not a brand, but rather a project. One, which she describes as based on the everyday, yet deceptively complex, act of getting dressed. How am I feeling? We ask, as she asks us to consider, in turn. Where am I going? What’s the weather like? Do I even like this pair of jeans? In Lanna’s latest Autumn / Winter 2023 collection, her conceptual goal is evident. Not only are her designs darkly toned with simple and warm silhouettes, reflecting the weather of Barcelona’s colder months, but her show captures models in a closet-like setting. They talk with one another while choosing what to wear, and in a way the show is made accessible: free and organic. It is clothing that is not trying to be anything more than what it is.
In this way, Paloma Wool is a genius work of commentary. In our current world of preached sustainability and supposed “slow fashion” influencers, how is it possible to speak on ethical values while encouraging such consumption? With the increased use of social media and its all-consuming algorithms, no matter how ethical the practices are, there remains the desire to consume. Paloma Wool inspires a new approach to the so-called sustainable brand. It is a brand that, rather focusing on its influence and advertisement, seeks instead to educate.
In Consumed: The Need for Collective Change: Colonialism, Climate Change, and Consumerism, Aja Barber states that the primary purpose of sustainable creators should be to provide outfit inspiration, to demonstrate how to wear garments multiple times. While sustainable brands may still create a desire for new items, this appetite is not located within the disposable trend cycle. Rather, these brands focus on education and inspiration, encouraging customers to consume self-sufficiently.
Paloma Wool’s “the act of getting dressed” is exactly that. Lanna advocates a philosophy where “sustainability” is created within your own means. Her brand is based on the values of local production, limited manufacturing, industry awareness, and responsible consumption. Even her project’s social media reflects this process of how our clothes interact with the everyday life that surrounds us: TikToks of expecting mothers, videos of walking the dogs, Instagram posts in the store, by the sea, on a motorbike... all wear their Paloma Wool. Lanna’s Autumn / Winter 2023 collection highlights simple designs of scarves-as-tops, scarves-as-shawls, and scarves-as-scarves. There are blue jeans and black boots, all paired with minimal silhouettes. Lanna’s interest in simplicity, playing with clothing items the consumer might already own, moves away from this sense of exuberance in fashion and life. Instead, Lanna encourages us to look towards our communities, to our natural surroundings, to our very own wardrobe. Paloma Wool inspires us not to buy, but rather, to turn to what already lies in front of us.
Article by Lucy Kaskie, Contributor, PhotoBook Magazine
Tearsheets by Alexa Dyer, Graphic Designer, PhotoBook Magazine
*All images sourced from Paloma Wool
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