Through the blossoming Eurasian springs, Black Sea-breezed summers, strikingly colorful falls, and snow-blanketing winters, Tbilisi serves as immersive, year-round inspiration for its bustling art and fashion scenes. A hub for creatives, many of which are rapidly garnering global attention, Georgia’s capital is an artist’s playground not to be overlooked. Below, acquaint yourself with six of Tbilisi’s up-and-coming designers that are elevating the expectations of contemporary fashion one season at a time.
INGOROKVA

• ABOUT THE BRAND: Serving a confident statement while wearing the brand’s garments, the INGOROKVA woman adopts their explicit style with a concise allegation, representing individualism and underlying her distinctiveness in the strongest way possible.
• The voice of the brand is heard by a woman who is modern, dynamic and intelligent, who is certain about her values and adopts a brand that shares them with her, chooses quality over quantity and synthesizes style with her firm ethical and principal approaches. She translates the primary focus of the brand concept and is determined to stand out, while the team behind it continues to reinforce their commitment to quality fused with strong identity creation.
• SPRING 2020 INSPO: This season’s collection, with statement pieces, focuses on the concept of sustainable fashion and the ways to express the inner protest against overproduction. The collection is addressed to a woman that shares the same core values with the brand, making her feel confident, distinctive and aids her to show individuality by our talented seamstresses. The durable pieces of the collection create confidence, bringing the vibes of effortless chic and the energy of individuality to the INGOROKVA SS20 female.

SITUATIONIST

• Situationist presented its SS20 collection at the Mercedes Benz Fashion Week Tbilisi on November 1, at 3:00 pm at Dodo Abashidze. The show will take place in an old electricity power plant which is similar to the infamous 9th Unit Power plant. In the ’90s and early 2000s there were massive electricity restrictions due to the social-political climate. This period of time evokes strong memories for many that can often be associated with darkness.
• The collection explores the notion of shared knowledge and emotion through many generations of women. Situationist is proud to have 12 self-taught women among others in their team who have learned pattern making and cutting from their mothers and grandmothers. The collection explores the archetypes of the wardrobe from the past to the present. It reinvents traditional Georgian elements, rural knowledge, and inspiration drawn from vintage pattern-making magazines. Additionally, each garment is hand signed by its artisan.
• This collection is an intimate look behind the doors of our atelier. We decided to deconstruct patterns from vintage magazines and it brought back so many emotions and memories. These magazines were collected and shared amongst women. “The collection is an appreciation of the past and traditional ways of maintaining resourcefulness and sustainability,” says Mzia Kudukhova, the seamstress of Situationist. “Yes, but we also used to heat an iron on a gas stove…all because of the cursed 9th unit,” adds Meri Babuadze, the pattern maker of the Situationist.

GEORGE KEBURIA

• “Within this collection, I wanted to visualize ’80s Soap Opera vibes. There are many kinds of characters, mostly older mature women. Some are cheating on their husbands. some are going bankrupt, but still spending all their money on clothes. Most of these characters are fashionholics. I wanted to depict as many types of characters as possible within one soap opera.
• The main accent of SS20 collection is the ’70s and ’80s fashion aesthetic. Mostly ’80s. The collection is a mix of light and heavy fabrics. Known for his love of bright color tones, George Keburia traditionally plays with color. For SS20, he wanted to play with as much as possible—mixing a soft palette of canary yellow, baby blue and apricot with bolder colors like fuchsia pink, lime, and black
• Editorial shoots of SS20 were styled with wigs and oversized sunglasses this season, the sunglasses are introduced in three oversized shapes; Round, D-frame, and square. George Keburia is introducing a satchel and shoulder bag for SS20. The leather bags are adorned with oversized rose details, which are also noticed on some of the ready-to-wear pieces. There are playful camisoles, asymmetric mini skirts, cropped lace. The collection is characterized by sharp shapes and sculptured silhouettes.

ZARQUA

• The Contemporary Georgian brand Zarqua was founded in 2016. The Origin of the name comes from Georgian model Nina, who has been a part of the fashion industry for many years. After leaving a successful modeling career, she launched her own brand. As a young girl, she dreamt of being a designer. She imagined that one day an elegant, smart and powerful woman would wear her collections.
• SS20 INSPO; The SS20 Collection draws inspiration from a fashion-forward, strong, self-confident and at the same time very feminine woman. “The combination of crystals, metal embroidery, and prints are very modern to me,” Nina Zarqua explains.

LADO BOKUCHAVA

• Lado Bokuchava SS20 collection consists of many contrasts, as all the designer’s collections have been. Lado is usually popular for mixing colors and shapes together that don’t usually match and creating visual contrasts. His style is usually considered feminine, but after taking a closer look on the brand’s previous runways, femininity is not the brand’s signature, on the contrary. The SS20 collection is a mix of 16th century corset silhouettes and Spanish flamenco details, all of which transforms to edgy forms. Vintage vibe is created by textures and colors, and in the end silhouettes are your classic sexy.

ALEKSANDRE AKHALKATSISHVILI

• By using the deconstructive minimalism which has well become the brand’s philosophy, I am trying to represent a modern woman who is much aligned with the 21st century and not afraid of challenges. The initial spark of inspiration is the garment. The key piece is a vest, that creates a masculine silhouette and is presented in different combinations. Vegan leather has become standard within the label. Early 2000’s minimalism has a major impact on the collection. The result is a lineup of vary wearable pieces.