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Profile | It started with socks – now he designs for Dua Lipa and Beyoncé. Meet Giuliano Calza, the founder of Italian brand GCDS
- Fashion label GCDS has fans in Madonna and Lady Gaga, and founder Giuliano Calza has dressed Dua Lipa and Beyoncé
- Calza talks about why Shanghai is the place where he feels most at home when abroad and how he first started designing clothes
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Italian designer Giuliano Calza, founder of fashion label GCDS, says his brand would not exist if he had not gone to live and work in mainland China a decade ago.
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The 34-year-old studied international relations and Mandarin in college, and won a scholarship that allowed him to spend a semester in Shanghai. He quickly fell in love with the city and, after getting a master’s degree in marketing in Milan, decided to return.
Calza and his brother, Giordano, spent more than three years managing a number of restaurants in Shanghai. Calza thought he would never leave.
“That time was a lot of fun but also my formative years [from a business point of view],” says Naples-born Calza from Milan, where he is now based. “I was in charge of all the visual aspects, from the decor to the menus. I was acting as creative director. My favourite thing was to learn Chinese slang from the cleaning lady and to design the uniforms for the staff.”
It did not take long for Calza to realise he should try his hand at designing clothes.
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