Fashion

Tbilisi Fashion Week | How Georgia makes you rethink what’s cool

By JDEED Team | 7 May 2019

We’ll probably forever have the “Big 4”, Paris, New-York, London and Milan, but Fashion Weeks aren’t just about the main cities anymore.

Nestled in the Caucasus region of Eurasia, Georgia and its capital city Tbilisi are taking a lead in all things fashion and have been slowly but surely establishing themselves as the new kings of cool for a few seasons now.

Not the most obvious, Georgian fashion has had its first big moment with Demna Gvasalia and his line Vetements before he was appointed creative director of Balenciaga. So even if you think you don’t know anything about the Fashion made in Tbilisi, you actually already did.

Mercedes-Benz Fashion Week Tbilisi (MBFWT) Mercedes-Benz Fashion Week Tbilisi is Georgia’s premier fashion event which offers an international platform to designers from the region as well as enabling them to connect with media and buyers.

The event’s aim is to increase the domestic awareness of home grown fashion and global presence of Georgian design, while highlighting the culture and sophisticated glamour that solidify Tbilisi as a style capital where east meets west.

MBFWT is held twice a year in May and November and founded in 2015 by Sofia Tchkonia. The May 2019 edition, that has just ended yesterday, was a feast for the eyes and has left us dreaming of funky suits, belted waists, wide legs, warm knits and Stabilo colors.

Here’s a tour of the designers shaping the scene whose names are as hard to pronounce as their designs are easy to desire.

SITUATIONIST

Cuts, cuts, cuts. Straight out of your cool grand-mother’s wardrobe, SITUATIONIST loves to play with mixing fabric and balancing wide and narrow.

MATERIEL

Wrapped waists, fluidity and pop colors, here are the codes of MATERIEL, which was created in 2012 based off what used to be Fashion House Materia, one USSR biggest textile production industry back in 1949.

INGOROKVA

INGOROKVA is luxury womenswear label, established and designed by Tamuna Ingorokva, that enjoys national and international recognition. Designer Tamuna is known for her incredible work of silk and leather and hasn’t disappointed this season. Strong collars and well, leather with more leather are making of her collection one of the most polished and executed this season. We want it all.

LIYA

Designer Liya Goglidze was born in Tbilisi, Georgia and grew up in both Moscow and Vienna. She studied fashion at Polimoda in Florence and IED in Milan. LIYA was established in 2017. This new collection balances codes of both men and women’s dressings and presents designs for the bold and somewhat bossy ladies who love to rock a funky, loose suit. A touch of Mad Men aesthetic and some braided knits complete the whole panorama and help create the empowerment feel.

JANASHIA

Gvantsa Janashia is the designer of this label created in 2002. She believes in the mix of luxury and an urban, hip aesthetic. We’re huge fans of the glitters suit because you know, glitters and JDEED…

LADO BOKUSHAVA

Lado, who also designs for MATERIEL (see above) might be our favourite designer emerging from Tbilisi at the moment. He has it all: an understanding of the cuts, the color palettes, a seemingly effortless aesthetic that remains modernly sophisticated. The gorgeous Dana Hourani wore Lado Bokushava in her very first music clip for her song Ella Enta, styled by Amine Jreissaty.