MILAN — Palm Angels’ founder and creative director Francesco Ragazzi is a consummate photographer. Throughout his life — split between Milan and Palm Beach, Fla., as he was growing up and then marked by frequent international travels — he’s focused on a recurrent subject: the palm tree.
On Saturday the brand is to take part in Milan Fashion Week to unveil a photography exhibition marking the launch of a new book, “Decoding Palm Culture,” published by Rizzoli New York 10 years after Ragazzi’s first tome came out in 2014.
The latter triggered the launch of the Palm Angels fashion house, established a year later and marking its 10th anniversary in 2025. That book, simply titled “Palm Angels” with foreword by Pharrell Williams, featured Ragazzi’s dreamlike images of the sun-saturated Los Angeles skate scene, a big visual and aesthetic source of inspiration for the fashion brand.
“I’ve always been a passionate photographer, a practice I had kind of abandoned in the most recent years. I kept shooting things but didn’t have a precise project while I had been wanting to explore my essence and Palm Angels’ essence for a while,” Ragazzi said in a phone interview on the eve of the exhibition opening.
“I’d be jealous if someone else had done a book like this before me,” he added.
Images in the new Palm Angels book “Decoding Palm Culture” published by Rizzoli New York.
Courtesy of Palm Angels
The book is filled with 50 unreleased images of palm trees shot by Ragazzi over time in different locations, from Palm Beach and Los Angeles to Asia and Marrakech. Curated by Stefano Tonchi with written remarks by essayist Luca Scarlini, philosopher Emanuele Coccia and author Giovanni Aloi, the book is aimed at decoding the cultural, emotional, artistic and historical resonance of the palm tree.
“I think that the fascination with palm trees is triggered by their exotic character, but it also has to do with their inherent symbolism [linked with] shelter, resistance and an holiday vibes….I think the palm tree speaks to everybody, each one can attribute their own meaning but most importantly I think it suggests the emotion of escapism,” Ragazzi said.
The exhibition will display large- and small-size formats of imagery in the book as prints, plexiglass impressions, or reproduced on silver foil.
“Photography today is quicker and more filtered, it becomes either more simple or elaborate. I don’t think pure photography, the byproduct of shooting on film camera, exists anymore,” Ragazzi said. At some point he had launched an Instagram profile called The Palm Daily gathering his many shots of palm trees around the world.
Images in the new Palm Angels book “Decoding Palm Culture” published by Rizzoli New York.
Courtesy of Palm Angels
Viewed as an activation to gather its community around the brand’s key codes, the exhibition and book are aimed at conveying “a message of clarity, which was the starting point for the brand to come to life,” Ragazzi explained.
The exhibition opening will be followed by a party featuring DJs sets from Chloé Caillet, Prospa and Simone de Kunovich.
Palm Angels has been sitting out fashion weeks in recent seasons after hosting one-off shows when they felt relevant to the brand’s message. The last show was held in Paris for fall 2023 in March last year.
Palm Angels book “Decoding Palm Culture” is published by Rizzoli New York.
Courtesy of Palm Angels
“I ponder a lot about when the brand should speak and I think that in such a confused moment for fashion, I don’t think [a show] would be necessary,” Ragazzi said. “Product is paramount but in this moment, I think it’s crucial to talk to the gut [of people] and inject more creativity,” the Palm Angels founder said.
