ALBARELLA

Founded by Gianmaria Albarella, Albarella was created through the need of creating a safe space to express queer ideals and raise awareness on society’s crucial need to hear voices within the queer community. 

 

Gianmaria Albarella is a menswear designer based in London. After graduating with a BA in Fashion Design at NABA, Milan, in 2017, he then moved to London to start his career in the industry as a pattern cutter and garment technologist.  

 

For AW23, Albarella presented its latest instalment 'Hunty'. A collection consisting of 14 pieces drawing from the Creative Directors experiences growing up queer in Southern Italy, when he had to hybridise a strong masculine stance with signifiers that also allowed for his feminine side to transpire. Ring buckles tie together the blurry balances between masculine and feminine, as the soft pastels and draping silks merge with hard bondage belts, leather tie-ups and structured cuts. Masculinity is unbound, unhinged, recomposed in a cultural imagination where lace-like Swarovski chockers shimmer. Denim seams precariously rotate in defiance of the dominant rule that conceives of masculinity as static.