issue 5. I told Palomo Spain about this

After 10 days of Fashion week (and a 9 to 5!) I was exhausted. But I had booked a ticket to Espacio Iberia weeks before, so I decided to go either way. I took my drawings I did live during the Palomo Spain show and brought it with me. It was 100 people and a lot of cameras. Alba Melendo, stylist for many great artists, invited Alejandro Gómez Palomo to chat about fashion and trips (the best topics).

I liked how they talked about the things they never pack, bags they have lost during a trip, what going through international customs is like, working with stylists...

Then, it was questions time. Some people raised their hand, and I decided I had to do it too. I am very, very shy and cameras scare me a lot, so I prepared my speech mentally for half of the talk and then raised my hand before I could ever think it twice. I want to become less shy so it is my shock therapy. What I told him was something like this:

”Hi, I am very shy and I am kind of dying right now but I have to tell you this. It is nice to meet you, my name is Tesa and I have 2 very expensive hobbies. I like travelling abroad to see fashion weeks and I also like learning the language they speak in the country I am visiting, so you can imagine it takes a lot of time, effort and money.

But this has been with me since I can remember, and it is the most fun thing in the world for me. So I like travelling to Paris or Milan and just experience the city during these special times. Luckily, your show has helped me save money since it was in my own city and time since I didn’t have to learn a language. It was also good because I could see it all without an invitation! Thank you for not blocking the views, I saw EVERYTHING!”

(Here the audience laughed so I told them something like “well, you know, there was indeed security and they did an awesome job too!”).

So from going to all these fashion weeks I have a lot of illustrations and stories and I have created a magazine to keep all these memories and share it with the world! It is called Fridays after 5 and I am publishing next week! Could I show you the illustration I drew during your show?”

(At the beginning I was struggling, but since I can’t sum it up I had time to get comfortable with having the microphone, so I would have spent all my afternoon telling him my life hehe). They are both really nice people, he is specially a humble, fun man who describes himself as a very “normal” person. He is a genius.

The interviewer invited me to show him my illustration, and also GET ON STAGE and GETTING MY ILLUSTRATION SIGNED BY HIM. This is my first illustration signed by a designer.

You always have to raise your hand, and you always have to go to the places you want to belong to.

I had to show him some of the illustrations from that notebook, like this one from Schiaparelli:

When the talk was over, some people from the audience asked me for pictures of my drawings, a name on Instagram or where to buy illustrations. I met an Art History teacher that gave me her card, a mom and her daughter, a master in law and fashion, ...

This magazine was born in 2019 and has taken me 7 years to publish. My friends and family have seen every trial and error, and then the first people I tell about it is a worldwide known fashion designer, a celebrity stylist and 100 strangers, on camera.