Fashion Your Seatbelt

Marcelo Burlon a fashion designer somehow seems so limiting. This is a man who doesn’t shy away from a challenge and, more importantly, whatever project he is working on he comes at it with such a sense of positivity, playfulness and joy that it’s no surprise that he has been so successful. Today Marcelo is perhaps most famous for being the mastermind behind the Marcelo Burlon: County of Milan brand. A company that he started in 2012 as just a cool t-shirts label inspired by his native Patagonia, that garnered a cult following for its 180 euro a pop designs, has now grown into a global business. A brand that today counts a 40 million euros per year turn over and is sold in more that 400 stores worldwide. It’s a company powered by bold streetwear culture and Marcelo’s keen ability to spot what’s hot before the rest of the industry has even begun to feel the heat. It’s a skill that this autodidact designer has put to good use in other areas as well. For example, organizing events for top brands like Gucci, McQueen or Raf Simons, shaping the mood at parties with his renowned DJing skills or use his talent for embracing innovative avenues of communication when working the PR angle for brands like Nike, Coca Cola, Prada or Versace. A practicing Buddhist, and moved with his family to Italy when he was a teenager to work in a shoe factory and cleaned hotels with his mother to help make ends meet, Marcelo does not take his success for granted and is keen to support others to reach their dreams. He has invested in Virgil Abloh’s brand Off White, Palm Angel and Ben Taverniti Unravel Project via The New Guard Group that he co-founded in 2015 and now counts over 170 employees. Together these brands are creating a sartorial paradigm shift in the industry. There is no doubt that Marcelo’s impact on fashion is reaching far beyond clothing.

IKEA is a brand that is no stranger to collaborations. It’s a company that loves to elevate everyday item to artwork, while still making those designer home designs something accessible even for the first time home owner, young adult or student setting out on their own. Spearheading the company’s latest collaboration is Henrik Most, who is the Creative Lead at Ikea. Most is the one who is working hand-in-hand with white hot designer Virgil Abloh, who just presented his first collection as the menswear designer of Louis Vuitton, on a line of cobranded Ikea items. I interviewed Most at the Fashion Tech Forum conference in Los Angeles right after he finished a round table talk with Abloh. At the conference they discussed what the home items they are creating together, which will drop early next year, would look like. Called The Markerad collection, the designs are all about elevating the anonymous, everyday pieces that we use without noticing and giving them a subtle pop-art inspired twist. Iconic staple and functional items have been injected with a modern designer polish that makes the familiar feel fresh and new. The perfect example of this thinking is the standard white Ikea rug that Abloh re-envisioned. In a very meta move the designer transformed the white rug into an oh-so-familiar white Ikea receipt (bar code et all) that actually showed printed on the rug the price of the rug itself. But instead of me trying to explain what it is like to work with Abloh on a creative collaboration, I am going to turn it over to Most to tell you more about this exciting adventure in interior designs.

Fashion entrepreneur Anine Bing is a very savvy business woman who knows how to seize her moment. An early adapter to the social media space, Anine, who is a former model and blogger, was one of the first to translate her online following into a successful fashion brand business. She launched her signature line back in 2012 out of the garage in her home in California. Her collection of chic staple pieces, inspired by her Scandinavian heritage and the casual cool of her Los Angeles home base, were an instant hit. Her “online first” business model, leveraging social media to market and promote her pieces was a new strategy at the time she launched. But today it's a formula that many are emulating. She reverse-engineered her success, starting from the digital space and then moving into the more traditional brick-and-mortar arena. Because today, Anine is sitting on the top of a wardrobe essentials empire. Not only is her collection sold in more than 350 stores globally, she also has over 15 stores located around the world. And Anine continues to expand. She has moved into childrenswear and has launched a successful line of perfumes, not to mention sunglasses, shoes, bags, lingerie, and jewelry. I sat down with Anine in her stylish stand-alone store in the heart of Paris to discuss her impressive success story. I was curious to learn more about a woman who was able to translate her love of timeless style and relaxed elegance into a brand that is helping legions of women look picture perfect for their selfies.

I have known JJ Martin for my entire professional career. And yet, until this podcast interview, I hadn’t realized just how much our lives were parallel. We are both California girls, we both left the United States to follow our hearts to Europe, and we both became top fashion journalists in international fashion capitals. Now all of this is a fun side note to this interview. But the real reason I wanted to speak with JJ is to finally learn the how and why behind her choice to launch her company, La Double J, in 2015. If ever there was an inspirational story about how to be fearless when it comes to pivoting and creating a second act for your career, it’s JJ’s story. But I am getting a bit ahead of myself. In this podcast, you will hear all about how JJ was able to start to follow her passion for fashion through the fields of advertising and marketing. How she ended up living in Milan, not speaking a word of Italian. And how a chance meeting with the renowned fashion journalist Godfrey Deeny put her on the path to becoming one of the top fashion writers in Milan, eventually spending 15 years on staff at publications like The Wall Street Journal, Harper’s Bazaar and *Wallpaper. Today, however, JJ’s love of fashion, and more specifically bold prints and great Italian artisans, has manifested itself into one of the industry’s most beloved independent businesses. La Double J is an e-commerce website that extols all things vibrant and vivid. Her curated selection of vintage patterned prints on easy to wear dresses, pants, and tops have made her site the go-to place for anyone who loves to be the center of attention when they walk in a room. Better yet, JJ has smartly evolved the company to become an avenue for her to highlight the work of Italian artists and brands that she feels need to be celebrated, such as the porcelain company Ancap, the Venetian glassmaker Salviati, the luxury handbag company Valextra and Acqua di Parma, by creating collaborations that blend their work with her own uniquely colorful universe. More recently JJ has expanded La Double J even further into the lifestyle brand space with a new focus on the world of wellness and helping women around the planet find their inner goddess. In the section on her site dedicated to living like an Italian, JJ discusses topics like the power of color on the psyche, chakras, and the movement practice of Qi Gong. Just on a technical side note, I did want to let all you listeners know that JJ and I did our interview over Zoom video. So don’t be surprised by a couple of very minor audio issues. And if you happen to be more of a visual learner, feel free to head over to my signature YouTube channel to watch the video version of this podcast in action. Now get ready to be inspired by JJ’s story. How she was able to manifest the career she wanted through passion, determination and hard work should motivate all of us. now more than ever, to start following our dreams.

Fashion designer August Getty is a gentle soul whose goal is to create a fully inclusive, fully immersive sartorial world where everyone is welcome. All that is required is that you be yourself 100% both in the real world in one of his one-of-a-kind couture creations, or in the digital sphere where he recently created a whole new virtual universe he has baptized Tinitus. It is inside Tinitus that August brought to life four digital gowns for this past haute couture season, with 3D imagery so detailed it probably caused some of the biggest couture houses to turn green with envy. The designer spent six months creating these three-dimensional virtual gowns and he intends to expand on this concept with the upcoming couture shows this summer. Based in Los Angeles, the August Getty Atelier has become a niche go-to fashion house for celebrities like Miley Cyrus, Cher, Katy Perry, Lady Gaga, Zendaya..and I could go on. All of them looking for outfits that are bold, unexpected, and wholly original for their galas, red carpets, and event outfits, because let's get one thing clear, August designs ensembles for maximum impact. For August, who is an autodidact designer, the goal of fashion, which he says he has loved all the way back to “when he was in the womb” is how transformative it can be. It can make you brave and it can give you the strength to be the person you want to become. Turn fiction into reality with fashion. That is what makes it so magical and so powerful.