Marcelo Burlon is the creative mastermind behind Milan-based fashion label Marcelo Burlon: County of Milan and the organiser of events for brands including Alexander McQueen, Gucci and Raf Simons.

At the age of 13, Burlon moved to Italy with his parents. Here he started his career as a party promoter, PR, fashion magazine editor, stylist, and finally DJ.

In 2012 the Argentine Milan-based DJ launched a selection of graphic t-shirts referencing to fashion music, nightlife from multiple cultures and celebrating diversity. As the t-shirts’ debut collection quickly became trendy, they were picked up as the unofficial uniform of Milan’s club kids. Fiver years later, the annual sales of the brand went up to €35 million.

To me, building a brand is like doing a party. It’s like a DJ set – you have to drive people through the music, in this case the clothing,’’. The brand headquarters also act as a home to emerging streetwear names Off-White, Palm Angels, Unravel Project and Heron Preston.

Currently, County of Milan is distributed across a network of 300 retailers worldwide. This includes the brand’s first mono-brand store in Hong Kong, pop-venues in Tokyo, Toronto and, of course, Milan.

In Milan we did a 6-month pop-up store and we work with great retailers here. Milan is a small city, so even though we’ve always wanted to open a mono-brand store here, we haven’t found the right location yet. There have been some spots available, but location-wise they weren’t so amazing. I somehow see my brand in the center of the city. Not Via Monte Napoleone, which is a bit too much. But more in between the Ticinese area and the center. In between the high and low. ‘Cause I talk to all of those kids.’’

Burlon will also appear on the next season of Italian reality-TV show Pechino Express.

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