N JANUARY, Panos Emporio generated a lot of buzz over the choice of female impersonator, 27-year-old Rickard Engfors, as its house model for its new Unlimited Love by Panos swimwear range. Engfors followed a line of models that include Victoria Silvstedt and Janina Frostell.
   Lucire has often been called one of the few publications that gets designer Panos’s philosophy. He is deeply concerned about the planet and, at a smaller scale, the problems with groupthink and mob mentality. His Unlimited Love range tried to challenge this, by bringing out what he saw as a universal motion that all people are capable of—and they need no “mob” to help them generate it.
   Therefore, Engfors’s choice was a master-stroke: not only did it convey individuality—few would dare hire a man in drag—but helped boost the Swedish cross-dressing movement which hitherto had lacked visibility and generated plenty of buzz for Panos Emporio.
   However, not everyone was convinced, and some have voiced that that conformity might be more marketable to Panos Emporio’s customers.
   Some of its distributors felt that the Engfors campaign was too risqué, while another criticism noted in Aftonbladet was that not enough people—principally from its female market—would identify with the model. The strongest concerns came from Finland, Central Europe and the Middle East.
   Panos Emporio’s Finnish representative, Evangelos Patouches, said that while Engfors was known in Sweden, he was unknown in Finland—and, therefore, customers would need an advance explanation to know how to react.
   Panos was, therefore, compelled to reshoot the campaign with a new model, the successful Greek athlete, TV hostess and artist Aleka. Aleka had appeared in another campaign for Bally. The Engfors-featured catalogues had to be destroyed.
   The reshoot sees similar imagery to the original, with the highly decorative and stylized faces printed on the swimwear.
   Still, his genuine approach to design and feeling attracts plenty of press in Sweden. Other brands might not—certainly, in this publication's knowledge, few independent brands do.
   The new catalogues will be distributed in 17 to 25 countries. •

Jack Yan is founding publisher of Lucire.

Lucire: ‘Love speaks volumes’ (January 30)
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Some have voiced that that conformity might be more marketable to Panos Emporio’s customers