BURLON, MARCELO

B ,   BRAND AND FASHION DESIGNER

MARCELO BURLON “A PIONEER OF MULTITASKING”

Marcelo Burlon was born in Patagonia in 1976, Marcelo Burlon is a DJ, PR and creative director. Defined in 2011 by the New York Times as “a pioneer of multitasking”.  He is passionate about music, theatre and literature, he is the emblem of the modern self-made man. Coming from very humble origins, he was born and grew up in a hippie village in Patagonia. Precisely in El Bolsòn, immersed in a tribal culture that he transposed into his clothes. In 1990 he moved to Marche with his family. Here, after the eighth grade, he began to work in the factory as a laborer. At the same time he worked as an entertainer in discos, cultivating his passion for music.

At the end of the nineties he moved to Milan, the city that welcomed him and accompanied him towards success. Here he worked at the entrance of Magazzini Generali, a place frequented by models, photographs but also main characters in the world of fashion like Domenico Dolce and Stefano Gabbana, Riccardo Tisci and Raf Simons.

Marcelo Burlon

He organized some of the coolest parties of the city, he brought together under one roof. Here a heterogeneous Milan joined by a sense of community and the desire to have fun. He began to build his network of contacts that soon led him to work in the world of fashion. First one year Dolce&Gabbana, then at Alessandro Dell’Acqua where he managed relationships with international celebrities. In 2012 he had the idea of monetizing his notoriety through the sale of t-shirts. These which tell his origins and his gratitude towards Milan. 

COUNTRY OF MILAN AND BURLON

Everything started in 2012 with a t shirt decorated with the tribal themes of Patagonia. Feathers and snakes were reworked according to an urban and streetwear language. Success was assured. Significantly, due to a wise use of social media. Starting from t-shirts, sweatshirts and ponchos, he soon created a complete collection that made its debut at Pitti87 in 2015. Marcelo does not define himself as a designer, but as a creative director who transmits his vision to a designer team which transforms the idea into a dress. Within a few years Marcelo Burlon was forced to reorganize his business, which reached 40 employees and a turnover of 20 million euros in 3 years.

County of Milan Fall Winter 2020

County of Milan represents the experience that Marcelo has accumulated in twenty-five years immersed in the culture of clubs, which he expertly mixes with the spirituality of his homeland and the urban environment of the city of Milan.

The result is a fashion that, maintaining a close link with the music environment, represents a pulsating universe made up of young people who come together in a new way of understanding fashion, as if it were a tribe, a community.

Marcelo always chooses heterogeneous models, personalities from the urban music scene, his friends and creatives for his fashion shows at Milan Fashion Week, where he did a fashion show in 2015. Through his fashion shows he tells the variegated universe that the County of Milan wants to represent, in a continuous overcoming of the imposed boundaries.

NEW GAURDS GROUP

In 2015 Marcelo Burlon, together with Davide de Giglio and Claudio Antonioli, founded the New Guards Group, a holding that controls 75% of different brands: County of Milan, Off White of Virgil Abloh, Palm Angels e Alanui. Based in Milan, the group quickly established itself as a solid reality in the streetwear panorama. In 2019 Farfetech, the e-tailer listed on the stock exchange since 2018, took over 100% of the group for 675 million euros.

LATEST PROJECTS

In 2020 Marcelo Burlon entered as a partner, with a 33% stake, in the Healthy Color project, the healthy fast food chain founded by rapper Sfera Ebbasta and football player Andrea Petagna. The purpose of the operation is that of expanding in Italy and abroad reaching new cities. In 2021 Marcelo Burlon, in collaboration with Kappa, celebrated his bond with the city of Naples by designing the official jerseys of the first team of the Neapolitan city.

Sfera Ebbasta, Andrea Petagna and Marcelo Burlon

The Napoli shirt

Marcelo Burlon left the creative direction of his brand Marcelo Burlon County of Milan

On April 23rd 2024, the designer’s decision to leave the creative direction of his brand was made public. The creative team within the maison, part of the New Guards Group company, will be responsible for the next collection.

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