Subversive Couture: How Paloma Fernandez Merges Sex Work and Alternative Bridalwear Fashion
- petit mort
- Jul 16
- 6 min read
PENELOPE DARIO in CONVERSATION with PALOMA DE LOS MUROS
Virgin Rogue is a bridal and intimates label reclaiming the narrative of the 'perfect woman.' Blending lingerie with wedding wear, the brand challenges purity politics and celebrates the duality of softness and rebellion.
What happens when bridalwear collides with the strip club? In this candid, wide-ranging conversation, PETIT MORT sits down with designer Paloma Fernandez de los Muros to discuss the provocative, deeply personal ethos behind her brand. From sneaking altered uniforms past Catholic school dress codes to photographing dancers with a disposable camera at underground sex parties, Paloma’s journey fuses lived experience, feminist resistance, and subversive couture. The result? Virgin Rogue—a collection that reimagines the wedding dress as a site of autonomy, eroticism, and radical self-possession.
PETIT MORT (Penelope)
Can you tell me a little bit about, like, collaborating with sex workers, and like, your experience with that, from your show, from your senior show, to this ad, and then, like, did it start before that.
PALOMA DE LOS MUROS
Yeah. So I met the person who's in the ad at my job at Isabel Mort. She was an intern. I was an intern... One day we were all talking about a strip club, and she said she was there too – on the pole. Everybody kind of paused because it was like sex work in like a luxury fashion space.. I had never been exposed to sex work at all before, so I was like, that sounds cool... this could be like a muse situation. So I want to be friends. We grabbed a coffee, and she just started telling me more. And I was like, wow. Like, this is so different than what I had been taught growing up... Because, like, growing up, I remember going to, like, the Mandarin in Miami, and I'd see, like, the really, like, in my opinion, beautiful prostitutes. They would have different Chanel bags. And I'm like, oh my god, mom, I want to be here when I’m older! And she’s like no. So for me, there was always a bad connotation... And then I was like, Oh my gosh. Like, this girl... didn't look like what the media had portrayed as a sex worker.
She's like, listen, like, let's get to know each other better, and then maybe... you can come in. So we went on this weekend trip... It was little things where we were like, you want to get on a boat this weekend...
