The Milan calendar is dominated by titans of the industry, names that reverberate around the world. Bigness has long been the aim in fashion, though we’re seeing how that kind of scale can be hard on the people that support it, to say nothing of the Pale Blue Dot we all call home. If you look, though, there are emerging designers with a different set of goals: prioritizing craft and the humans that make it, and intentionally staying small in order to do so.
That’s Galib Gassanof’s plan anyway. A young designer with Georgian and Azerbaijani roots, Gassanoff came to Milan for school at 18, and collaborated with his friend Luca Lin for seven years at the label Act No 1, before starting his own collection, much of it hand-made by himself or by artisans in Georgia. Today, he put on his second-ever show and presented his fourth collection, and it was very much a reflection of his background, with backless peplum tops made from tightly loomed shoe laces and “the new look”-style rush skirts using techniques typically employed for rugs, in addition to tailored jackets with an impressive finesse. The first of these borrowed their curving lines from the traditional Georgian chokha (though they also evoked Dior’s classic bar jacket), and another inside-out style suggested Gassanoff has studied fashion’s deconstructionists.
“I do this because I love making clothes, working with materials, and telling stories. My community and my family, they didn’t have much voice, right? So, I wanted to bring their voices.” he explained backstage. Until now, Gassanoff has been selling his clothes privately and made-to-measure, but with this collection he’ll be in Paris for sales appointments next week. “The idea is not to expand commercially too much, just to do it mindfully,” he added. The artisanal tops and dresses will appeal to the kind of clientele If SoHo and Maxfield cultivate in New York and LA: arty, culturally engaged, and happy to invest in one-off statement pieces.
