There is something truly fascinating about fashion: the untold story that unravels behind closed doors. You may say that part of the untold story is currently being recounted by high profile bloggers and established journalists posting pictures on Instagram that show us intimate backstage moments of a catwalk show, such as models eating and having their make up done. But the untold story I'm referring to actually hints at the power games that end up taking a designer or a brand to massive success. It is for example extremely exciting to investigate the Marcelo Burlon phenomenon from different perspectives. According to the fashion media, Burlon's brand, County of Milan, is one of the most successful labels around. But how did it all start?
Born in Patagonia, Argentina, Burlon moved to Italy over 20 years ago. After spending some time in Porto Potenza Picena, in 1998 he relocated to Milan becoming a PR, DJ, party organiser and event manager with a list of famous friends that includes Raf Simons and Riccardo Tisci (he met the latter while organising events at the venue Magazzini Generali).
Roughly two years ago, Burlon launched a line of T-shirts - dubbed County of Milan - in collaboration with graphic designer Giorgio Di Salvo, better known as art director of the Iuter brand. In 2013 Burlon's name is still linked to his main job, that of organising cool events for major clients and taking cool people to them, so he's still not a phenomenon of "streetwear".
In April of the same year he angrily leaves on his Facebook page a poetical message to the people who have vandalised his space: "If I find whoever did this, I'm going to nail him from his balls to my scooter and drive him back and forth along via Tortona....I'm offering cash and free pussy to whoever finds them for me!!!", he angrily writes. Total street poet there, absolute urban Shakespeare. But let's go back to fashion.
As the months passed, Burlon became more popular, got support from Claudio Antonioli from the Antonioli boutique in Milan, and built his little empire. So, from posting murdering threats on Facebook, he passed to being stocked first in 200 stores all over the world and now, according to style.com, in 450. In June he presented his menswear collection during Pitti Uomo and also launched his childrenswear line at Pitti Bimbo. In July it was announced that the line by basketball player Russell Westbrook for Barneys New York Inc. (Westbrook-XO-Barneys New York) was also going to include pieces from County of Milan.
Burlon claims his fame comes from hanging with the crowd and belonging to a gang, but this is not a socialist statement as his prices aren't socialist at all and his crowd hangs around Barneys in New York and Colette in Paris and seems to include famous artists and celebrities (LeBron, Pusha T, Maxwell, Tinie Tempah), who, he states, were never given the garments for free but bought them by themselves. Yet why would they buy something that shows a strong derivation from other designers? Burlon claims the prints in the County of Milan shirts were indeed inspired by Patagonia, but some of the motifs in his collections seem borrowed from other designers.
Burlon's snaking serpents are reminiscent of Alexander McQueen's mountain Kingsnakes writhing on the dresses of his A/W 2009-10 collection; bird's wingspan is also not that new (see Barbara Bui's S/S 2014 bomber jacked and Burlon's T-shirts and leggings), while assorted animals have so far appeared on many ready-to-wear collections by fashion houses à la Givenchy by Riccardo Tisci (by the way, was it Tisci who copied Di Salvo's VNGRD or Di Salvo who copied Tisci for Burlon?) and High Street retailers like Asos, H&M, Topshop and Kiabi, not to mention products availabe from online sites like Etsy. You may argue the print is far more edgy and distributed in a cooler way around Burlon's garments, yet would you still be willing to pay roughly $200 for a shirt?
While a few people may want to do that, Burlon justifies the prices with the fact that his garments are high-end products made by an independent label associated with celebrity status. A statement that doesn't make sense when he claims he hangs with the "crowd" (either you hang with a wider crowd or you hang with an exclusive crowd...), but actually points towards hyped up luxury and not streetwear, linking Burlon's label to other partners in crime.
Burlon quite often mentions in interviews his brand in connection with Off-White, the label designed by Kanye West's creative director Virgil Abloh, to prove that "streetwear" rules and claiming they support each other (well, they surely have the same ideas: interviewed on CR Fashion Book, Abloh stated about his first collection "My collections are inspired by everyday living and current culture. There is a sort of language of dress that exists in Hôtel Costes in Paris, that lives in the Mercer Hotel lobby in New York, or that thrives in a cool club in Berlin," I frankly didn't know that four star hotels were social centres where subcultures thrived...).
The truth is that both of them come out of the same factory. County Srl actually provides production capabilities to Off-White and the two societies - County Srl and Off White Operating Srl (including another partner, David De Giglio, fashion consultant and founder of rather bland brand Vintage 55) - are based in Via Pasquale Paoli 3, Milan, a couple of doors from Antonioli Srl (based in Via Pasquale Paoli 1; yes, this starts looking like one of those Chinese boxes that Italian entrepreneurs create to evade taxes and such likes...).
But let's move on to Burlon's kidswear label, launched in July at the Pitti Bimbo fair. It takes time and money to go to a fair with a coherent collection, it takes days to fill in forms, be approved by trade fair committees, pay invoices and be sure your stand is located in a good position. Burlon had the most prominent stand, located outside the main building.
The booth was covered with portraits of multiracial kids in the best Oliviero Toscani for Benetton fashion, though these poor souls sported extremely serious and miserable expressions on their faces that made sure they looked like factionless elements out of a dystopic world à la Divergent rather than members of Burlon's "gang" or "tribe". Buyers weren't queueing outside the booth to get in, probably because it wasn't a proper collection, meaning that it didn't offer any variety when it came to shapes and silhouettes (one of the main things that many buyers from many prominent department stores all over the world will rebuke you with if you're a designer and have only got a line of T-shirts...).
For his childrenswear collection, Burlon didn't do much else apart from miniaturising the motifs in his grown-up collection. Now, it is true that grown ups buy garments for kids according to their own tastes, that's why H&M produces Star Wars saga, Kiss and Rolling Stones shirts for babies and young children, but, at the same time, kids are becoming more and more aware of what they want to wear and there aren't too many 6 year-old children out there who would cheerfully wear a black T-shirt covered in contorting snakes.
Yet that's not all, the epic fail in "Kids of Milan" is actually its name: in the '80s Benetton went for "United Colours of Benetton" to hint at its wide range of colours and at a global appeal; the name of Burlon's company hints at a restricted kind of market, almost to say that kids of Milan are cool, but the brand is actually produced in Abruzzo, a region located in the centre south of Italy (and if you're from there like me you have probably experienced at some point in your life some mild racism courtesy of the Milanese gentility...), by UCW - Unique Children Wear (also producing Patrizia Pepe and Bikkembergs). By don't get me wrong, I'm happy and proud that the kids from the South are actually manufacturing in Italy what the kids from Milan are wearing.
Anyway, there are undoubtedly dark areas in the making of County of Milan.
It took decades to Elio Fiorucci to establish a solid brand (who wasn't about including people in a gang, but in celebrating diversity and outsiders); there are young and talented designers who have proven they are no one hit wonders and have been dropped and forgotten by the media after two collections; Jean Paul Gaultier recently announced the closure of his ready to wear line, so how can somebody make millions selling a pile of T-shirts with cut and paste prints?
Apparently, the social media are responsible for Burlon's fame, but we have all met people who can use social media in a much better way and haven't achieved his sales. It is therefore clear that you need key friends and a few condescending magazines/editors and buyers to get these results and bring a brand to global success, unless you're also offering "cash and free pussy" along the way to all the people on your path (or unless you are laundering money from criminal organisations in your brand...sounds like the perfect conspiracy plot for a dark novel set in the world of fashion...).
At the same time, who can blame Burlon? He is a product and a barometer of culture, of our sad sad culture. In the late '90s Takeji Hirakawa, one of Japan's leading fashion critics, coined the phrase 'Fashion DJ' to define designers who had turned into merchandisers; now the DJ is a a designer, so it is ok if the DJ also "samples" inspirations from other designers (County of Milan's womenswear collection showcased yesterday in Milan was a pastiche of KTZ's previous collections, though the result was more verging towards depressed Spice Girls...) and if he thrives in the banality of re-enacting and remixing things.
Time will tell if Burlon's brand is a youth cult and a branding religion, or a short-lived, hyped-up label, in the meantime you can maybe ask directly to him the same questions I'm asking myself. Burlon will indeed host tonight a talk as part of the "lectio magistralis" (bloody hell, don't make me laugh) programme at the "Vogue Experience: A Conversation with", organised by Vogue Italia at Palazzo Morando. But, watch out, I think you may be arrested if you ask him where he finds his favourite and disposable giveaways, "cash and free p***y"...
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