Burani dresses to kill

Known for his discreet allure and eccentric lightness, Italian designer Cristiano Burani popped into Bangkok last week to present his Spring and Summer 2015 collection at Bangkok International Fashion Week 2014 at Siam Paragon.
    Presented by Digital Fashion Week, Burani’s runway boasted a relaxed look with lots of gentle pastel colour hues. His new ready-to-wear collection “Normcore” – clothes to be worn without any sense of occasion – are designed in accordance with a dressing-up philosophy that Burani describes as “understated but impeccable in the details”.
    “The clothes are pretty and seem normal but have a sense of luxury as well as a casual and cool attitude,” says the designer of his collection, which made its debut at the recent Milan Fashion Week.
    “I come from a European country where the economy is in crisis. You can’t get away from reality. We Italians worry about the future. I think it makes no sense to express too much luxury so I’ve turned to something that is not quite minimalism. My clients have to express femininity from their souls. I use typical fabrics such as silk, chiffon, silk twill, linen, cotton and leather and with the help of some fine traditional Italian companies I am also proposing old fabrics with a new twist. These include pleated leather and simple cotton bonded with aluminium laminate to create a shiny fabric that gives off a sense of the future,” he explains.
Burani, who originally planned to be a doctor, studied fashion design at Parson’s School in New York. When he returned home, he began to collaborate with world-class labels starting with La Perla, then Bluemarine, with whom he worked for seven years, then with Versace for another five. He was a finalist in Vogue’s “Who’s On Next” competition three years ago and has won many awards, among them the World Luxury Award in 2012 and NUDE New Upcoming Designers in 2011. He launched his own brand in 2010 and since then has worked closely with the Italian Fashion Chamber. He is also a regular on the catwalks of Milan, Paris, Tokyo, Beijing, Moscow, Berlin and Kiev.
“I think it is very important to understand family companies that became famous the world over because that’s how most Italian fashion empires started. I think that is our strength. It was valuable for me to see the construction of the garments and study the heritage of these companies, especially Versace. I learned a lot from Gianni Versace’s works. As brands go international, it is vital that their notion of the ideal woman moves away from Italian or European and embraces the rest of the world. Designs must be appreciated by different kind of people.
“To establish my own brand, I needed to find my own identity and I have to say that this is still a work in progress. I’ve made slight changes to my designs for each collection to make them more refined. I’d like people to buy my designs because they want to wear them forever, not just because they’re seasonal and in vogue,” he says.
“The quality of fabric, first of all, is very important and I am very proud that everything is made in Italy. The sequins are hand-embroidered in the South of Italy.”
For his show at BIFW, Burani experimented with newly designed fabrics such as pleated and rolled leather skirts bonded with satin and lasered in large see-through panels, hand-embroidered and bonded linen cocktail dresses and sequinned tops and skirts. Jacquard motifs were enhanced with a macro and micro check-bonded canvas with polyurethane silver adding a crackle factor.
“There are a lot of concepts in one garment,” he says. “I apply modern technology to chic fabric. I like the idea of covering up the top and making the garment sexy around the knees so I use transparent cloth for the skirts and add a laminated bonding coat for futuristic appeal. Mixing the same outfit with lots of different textures is also interesting.”
Sporty details such as elastic bands on the shoulder and waist gave his evening gowns a casual and cool look, as did the shoes, with Burani banishing high heels in favour of leather flip-flops with rubber platforms for a more edgy look.
“A girl can be very contemporary and sophisticated. Luxury that’s understated is modernity,” he says.


The Italian designer brings together improbable fabrics and a thoroughly modern but relaxed flair for his new collection

Kupluthai Pungkanon
The Nation

Known for his discreet allure and eccentric lightness, Italian designer Cristiano Burani popped into Bangkok last week to present his Spring and Summer 2015 collection at Bangkok International Fashion Week 2014 at Siam Paragon.
    Presented by Digital Fashion Week, Burani’s runway boasted a relaxed look with lots of gentle pastel colour hues. His new ready-to-wear collection “Normcore” – clothes to be worn without any sense of occasion – are designed in accordance with a dressing-up philosophy that Burani describes as “understated but impeccable in the details”.
    “The clothes are pretty and seem normal but have a sense of luxury as well as a casual and cool attitude,” says the designer of his collection, which made its debut at the recent Milan Fashion Week.
    “I come from a European country where the economy is in crisis. You can’t get away from reality. We Italians worry about the future. I think it makes no sense to express too much luxury so I’ve turned to something that is not quite minimalism. My clients have to express femininity from their souls. I use typical fabrics such as silk, chiffon, silk twill, linen, cotton and leather and with the help of some fine traditional Italian companies I am also proposing old fabrics with a new twist. These include pleated leather and simple cotton bonded with aluminium laminate to create a shiny fabric that gives off a sense of the future,” he explains.
Burani, who originally planned to be a doctor, studied fashion design at Parson’s School in New York. When he returned home, he began to collaborate with world-class labels starting with La Perla, then Bluemarine, with whom he worked for seven years, then with Versace for another five. He was a finalist in Vogue’s “Who’s On Next” competition three years ago and has won many awards, among them the World Luxury Award in 2012 and NUDE New Upcoming Designers in 2011. He launched his own brand in 2010 and since then has worked closely with the Italian Fashion Chamber. He is also a regular on the catwalks of Milan, Paris, Tokyo, Beijing, Moscow, Berlin and Kiev.
“I think it is very important to understand family companies that became famous the world over because that’s how most Italian fashion empires started. I think that is our strength. It was valuable for me to see the construction of the garments and study the heritage of these companies, especially Versace. I learned a lot from Gianni Versace’s works. As brands go international, it is vital that their notion of the ideal woman moves away from Italian or European and embraces the rest of the world. Designs must be appreciated by different kind of people.
“To establish my own brand, I needed to find my own identity and I have to say that this is still a work in progress. I’ve made slight changes to my designs for each collection to make them more refined. I’d like people to buy my designs because they want to wear them forever, not just because they’re seasonal and in vogue,” he says.
“The quality of fabric, first of all, is very important and I am very proud that everything is made in Italy. The sequins are hand-embroidered in the South of Italy.”
For his show at BIFW, Burani experimented with newly designed fabrics such as pleated and rolled leather skirts bonded with satin and lasered in large see-through panels, hand-embroidered and bonded linen cocktail dresses and sequinned tops and skirts. Jacquard motifs were enhanced with a macro and micro check-bonded canvas with polyurethane silver adding a crackle factor.
“There are a lot of concepts in one garment,” he says. “I apply modern technology to chic fabric. I like the idea of covering up the top and making the garment sexy around the knees so I use transparent cloth for the skirts and add a laminated bonding coat for futuristic appeal. Mixing the same outfit with lots of different textures is also interesting.”
Sporty details such as elastic bands on the shoulder and waist gave his evening gowns a casual and cool look, as did the shoes, with Burani banishing high heels in favour of leather flip-flops with rubber platforms for a more edgy look.
“A girl can be very contemporary and sophisticated. Luxury that’s understated is modernity,” he says.