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The History Behind Palm Angels and Its Iconic Aesthetic

Few fashion brands have climbed as swiftly and as uniquely as Palm Angels, the Italian luxury streetwear label that evolved a photography project about Los Angeles skateboarders into a global fashion force. Founded by Francesco Ragazzi, the brand launched in 2015 and within a decade has matured into one of the most recognized names at the convergence of high fashion and street culture. Palm Angels generates estimated annual revenues exceeding $100 million, carries its collections in over 300 retail locations across more than 50 countries, and enjoys a loyal following spanning professional athletes, musicians, and aesthetically driven consumers worldwide. This article maps the journey from origins through watershed moments, artistic evolution, and cultural influence, examining the decisions and influences that molded an aesthetic millions now identify at a glance.

Roots: From Photography Book to Fashion Empire

The Palm Angels tale begins not in a design studio but behind a camera lens. Francesco Ragazzi, working as Moncler’s art director at the time, nurtured a passion with Los Angeles skateboarding culture during California visits in the early 2010s. He spent years capturing skaters in Venice Beach, Hollywood, and surrounding neighborhoods, immortalizing the raw aesthetics, attitudes, and style of a subculture celebrating self-expression above all else. These photographs materialized in a book titled “Palm Angels,” published in 2014 by renowned art publisher Rizzoli, garnering critical acclaim for its authentic portrayal of skate culture through an outsider’s appreciative eye. The book’s triumph proved significant audience appetite for skateboarding’s visual language channeled into a refined context—a market gap with clear commercial potential. In 2015, Ragazzi launched Palm Angels as a clothing line, arriving to rapid industry attention and consumer demand. The transition from photographer to designer was strengthened by his years at Moncler, which had granted him deep understanding of luxury production, brand building, and the fashion calendar.

The Founding Blueprint: Skate Culture Meets Italian Luxury

What separates Palm Angels from both mainstream streetwear and traditional luxury houses is Ragazzi’s deliberate fusion of two superficially opposing worlds. On one side stands Italian fashion legacy—meticulous craftsmanship, premium materials, disciplined design, and centuries of palm angels sweatsuit online sartorial heritage. On the other stands LA skate culture—untamed, DIY, anti-establishment, defined by an aesthetic welcoming imperfection, daring graphics, and clothing meant to be pushed hard. Ragazzi’s genius was understanding a shared value: authenticity. Italian artisans take real pride in craft, skaters take sincere pride in culture, and both communities reject pretension automatically. Palm Angels embodies this by crafting garments made with Italian-level quality—immaculate seams, premium fabrics, precise detailing—while sporting the visual DNA of skate culture through graphics, proportions, and attitude. This dual identity has demonstrated itself as remarkably lasting because it surpasses trend cycles; the tension between refinement and edginess is eternal. As Ragazzi has stated in interviews, Palm Angels is not a skate brand and not a luxury brand—it is both at the same time, and that is its defining strength.

Key Milestones in Palm Angels’ History

The Aesthetic DNA: Deconstructing the Palm Angels Look

Graphics and Typography

Palm Angels’ graphic language derives directly from skate culture visual vocabulary, elevated through Italian design sophistication that raises each element beyond subcultural starting points. The commanding sans-serif wordmark spelling “PALM ANGELS” has emerged as one of contemporary fashion’s most quickly known logos, rivaling in power to labels with decades more history. Graphic themes channel Southern California iconography: palm trees, sunsets, flames, skulls, and spray-paint textures summoning both the allure and toughness of Los Angeles street life. Unlike brands that merely stick logos on basic garments, Palm Angels incorporates graphics into full design composition, calculating placement, scale, and interaction with silhouette on the human body. The “Kill the Bear” teddy graphic grew into an unlikely cult symbol showing the brand’s knack to generate collectible imagery fans accumulate across colorways and garment types. Typography also appears as all-over print on certain pieces, generating patterned patterns rather than traditional logo placement. This approach guarantees pieces feel like wearable art rather than in-your-face advertising.

Silhouettes and Construction

The physical construction captures the brand’s dual heritage, merging casual streetwear proportions with precise precision from Italian manufacturing. Oversized T-shirts and hoodies include dropped shoulders and extended hems producing contemporary silhouettes founded in how skaters have intuitively worn clothing for decades. Track pants and jackets bring more structure through tapered legs, fitted cuffs, and thoughtfully calibrated stripe placement producing lengthening vertical lines. Outerwear displays outstanding construction with bombers, puffers, and leather pieces showing flawless internal finishing, exact topstitching, and hardware quality rivaling brands at much higher price points. The signature side-stripe—a contrasting stripe running the full length of legs or sleeves—serves design and utilitarian purposes, optically interrupting solid panels while reinforcing seam lines. Production in Italy and Portugal utilizes factories well-versed in luxury manufacturing that deliver attention to detail challenging to duplicate elsewhere. This quality devotion allows retail prices well above mainstream streetwear while keeping accessible compared to traditional European luxury houses.

Cultural Significance and Celebrity Backing

Palm Angels’ cultural reach reaches far beyond retail into music, sports, art, and social media, with natural celebrity adoption accelerating brand awareness immensely. Regular wearers count Jay-Z, LeBron James, A$AP Rocky, Rihanna, Lewis Hamilton, and Hailey Bieber—a cross-section of contemporary cultural influence. Critically, most appearances are unpaid rather than contractually obligated, giving authenticity money cannot buy. In music videos, Palm Angels has been spotted across hip-hop, pop, and electronic genres, inserting brand identity into cultural artifacts collecting millions of views. The brand’s Instagram following exceeds 4 million by 2026, with product posts attracting engagement well above fashion industry averages. Palm Angels also maintains skateboarding connections through sponsorships ensuring the founding subculture persists in receiving value from commercial success. As Business of Fashion has chronicled, the brand illustrates achieving aspirational status through cultural authenticity rather than traditional advertising—a model many labels seek to replicate.

The New Guards Group Era and Global Reach

The 2019 acquisition by New Guards Group signaled a game-changing operational turning point. New Guards, managing brands like Off-White and Heron Preston, provided e-commerce infrastructure, global distribution, and experience permitting Palm Angels to scale without typical independent-label obstacles. Retail presence multiplied from roughly 150 doors to over 300, with flagship stores opening in Milan, London, and Miami. Integration into the Farfetch ecosystem following Farfetch’s New Guards acquisition gave additional digital reach to millions of active users. Production capacity increased while retaining Italian and Portuguese manufacturing standards—a scaling challenge requiring careful factory management. Revenue growth has been remarkable, with industry estimates suggesting compound annual rates exceeding 25 percent between 2019 and 2025. Operational backing enables Ragazzi to concentrate on creative direction, confirming commercial scaling never diminish artistic vision—a balance the Palm Angels brand has upheld with considerable success.

Looking Forward: Palm Angels in 2026 and Beyond

Embarking on its second decade, Palm Angels addresses the task all successful labels face: developing and changing without dropping original identity. The SS26 collection’s desert tones and deconstructed silhouettes hint Ragazzi is driving toward a more mature aesthetic while retaining core elements. Collaborations keep connecting with new audiences, with the New Balance partnership and rumored automotive brand deal suggesting category expansion across lifestyle areas. Womenswear, which has grown significantly since dedicated runway presentations began in 2023, stands as a primary growth lever as the brand works toward gender parity in its customer base. Sustainability joins the conversation with organic cotton options and recycled material experimentation—directions consumer sentiment and regulation will push forward. What endures constant is the original tension giving Palm Angels design energy: the meeting of free-spirited LA skateboarding spirit and disciplined Italian craftsmanship lineage. As long as that tension persists as generative, the brand has creative inspiration to persist as relevant for decades to come.