Marcelo Burlon steps down as creative director of the Province of Milan

MILAN — Marcelo Burlon is stepping down as creative director of the County of Milan brand that he founded in 2012.

The brand’s parent company, New Guards Group, said in a statement that the Milan Province team will design the collections in the future.

The unexpected development comes as the fate of the New Guards Group remains in doubt following the rescue of its owner, Farfetch, by Coupang. As reported, Style Capital is eyeing the acquisition of NGG, but a deal has yet to be completed.

Burlon – a PR, DJ, stylist and nightlife designer – started the brand as a T-shirt project, which quickly grew into a full-fledged fashion brand, with nods to crafts and Burlon’s Argentinian roots (the designer was born in the Patagonia region ). , specifically in El Bolsón), which he has reinterpreted through a techno-folk lens. In 2014, he served as Pitti Uomo’s guest designer, cementing his reputation within the fashion system and the men’s arena.

In 2015, a few years after the label’s launch, Burlon formed an alliance with Davide De Giglio and Claudio Antonioli to create the Milan-based New Guards Group, which was sold to Farfetch two years later.

The designer remained in the role of creative director after the takeover and marked the brand’s 10th anniversary in 2022 with a major show during Milan Fashion Week at the Velodromo Vigorelli location with a giant satellite in the middle of the athletics field and a cast of 50 friends of the house.

In recent years, Burlon has taken care of side projects. In 2021, he founded his own foundation, Fondazione Marcelo Burlon, to help underprivileged people and marginalized communities, for example by donating to the Tuscany-based Casa Marcella, a home for transgender people, and by helping to provide shelter for Ukrainian refugees. in Milan.

As reported, he is also one of the supporters and donors of Morphine.Online, a second-hand and vintage company founded in 2018 by editor and art director Macs Iotti, his sister Martina and fashion designer Tommaso Vaiani.

Burlon now lives between Ibiza – where his house surrounded by olive trees is an art oasis with works of art by Keith Haring, Damien Hirst and Stefan Brüggemann, among others – and his native Patagonia, and occasionally comes to Milan.

He has also invested in a Mezcal brand and a padel club in Patagonia.

New Guards Group is home to 10 international brands, including Palm Angels, Unravel Project, Heron Preston, Alanui, Peggy Gou, Ambush and There Was One, in addition to Milan’s Marcelo Burlon County. It is also the licensee of Off-White and the European partner of Reebok. LVMH Moët Hennessy Louis Vuitton in 2021 bought a majority stake in Off-White LLC, the trademark owner of the late Virgil Abloh’s Off-White brand.