Irakli Rusadze

Sartorial Identities

“We should feel that projects are the result of personal questioning, and in touch with the present fashion scene and market.”

Irakli Rusadze is the creative director of the Tbilisi-based fashion brand SITUATIONIST, which he co-founded in 2015. A self-trained designer, Rusadze’s distinctive pattern-cutting and tailoring form the basis of his designs, alongside a desire to challenge “post-Soviet” stereotypes and reflect on contemporary social issues in Georgia.

Only two years after its launch, SITUATIONIST was featured as a guest brand at Milan Fashion Week in 2017. The brand began presenting its collections at Paris Fashion Week the following year, and in 2022, Rusadze, who is committed to working sustainably, unveiled a zero-waste collection there.

SITUATIONIST Spring/Summer 2021

SITUATIONIST Fall/Winter 2021

As a mentor, Rusadze is looking for candidates who understand “how to build their identity through their originality.” He seeks applicants who’ve learned to master their chosen field and feel confident with their knowledge. “People should apply with projects that are unique, sincere, and authentic,” he adds. “We should feel that their projects are the result of personal questioning, and in touch with the present fashion scene and market.”

The projects should be both creative and achievable. Therefore, applicants should be motivated to make their projects come to life and be open to adjusting them to stay in touch with the reality of the market. “Through the years, we learned how to make fashion and art communicate, and at the same time also sell the collections that we are proposing to the global market. Even though the platforms we work with propose products to a wide audience and in large quantities, we stayed true to our values and kept hand-making all our garments in the most sustainable way possible.”

SITUATIONIST, Look from Forbidden Family.

Rusadze is looking forward to sharing his experience running a high-pressure business, never losing sight of unnegotiable values and creative identity. “With this mentorship, I hope we can understand together how to adapt your uniqueness and authenticity to make it valuable and an asset to your brand.”

situationistofficial.com/

Watch Irakli Rusadze’s video statement:

Nominees

Itala Aguilera

Love Bug

Mexican artist and designer Itala Aguilera works as a costume designer for an Off-Broadway theater in New York City, where she is based, and is part of the artist collective Flux Factory. Her proposal reimagines lingerie as erotic wear that takes its cue from the mating calls of cicadas, who produce sound through the movement of their bodies. Similarly, the pieces in the collection will be designed to produce sound-generating movement. These wearable items will play with the idea of lingerie as a garment worn to increase one’s sensuality and confidence and appeal to someone else’s sexual desire. However, the items in the Love Bug collection will ultimately subvert the accepted image of lingerie and its feminine clichés of lace, bows, and flowers. It rejects an image-centered notion of sensuality and makes a bold statement against the fast-fashion products that perpetuate those clichés.

Aidan Jayson Peters

Life of a Garment

Aidan Jayson Peters, aka Klein Muis, is an award-winning designer whose research-driven work prioritizes problem-solving in scalable and ecologically responsible manners. His proposal encompasses a multi-format collection driven by questions surrounding sustainability and upcycling. Titled Life of a Garment, the project will source materials from Johannesburg’s so-called “discard sites” of European clothing to create complete looks. The collection will reflect the clothing items’ journey from the Global North to the Southern hemisphere through photography, texts, and a short film that describes a clothing item’s life cycle. The South African designer seeks to highlight the issue of waste produced in the North being dealt with in the Global South. He underscores the environmental impact of the garment industry as well as the informal economies that pop up around it, and the ingenuity of those who have found new ways to process and reinvent these cast-off products.

Tim van der Loo

The New Blue

Material and textile designer Tim van der Loo's work revolves around post-consumer resources and changing values. The Dutch designer focuses on topics related to regeneration, transformation, and community. Through the use of innovative materials and storytelling, van der Loo aims to engage audiences in ecological, societal, and cultural issues. The New Blue project involves creating a circular jeans material to explore different aspects of denim and the cultural and individual performances associated with it. Denim is often worn without regard for comfort, climate, or representation, and becomes individualized only through wear and tear. In a time when fashion trends are short-lived and social media discourages unique style, he proposes an investigation that would collect data on jeans, and utilize collective knowledge and AI-generated content to create innovative ideas around dressing. The outcomes may range from AI-generated outfits to community-based garments that reflect the zeitgeist of specific demographics.