Vogue: “Move over, Italy! How Georgia Is Stepping Up Europe’s Footwear Game”

Shoe designers around the world, beware, because "some of the coolest, most skillfully crafted footwear we’ve seen recently is coming straight out of Georgia,” writes Liana Satenstein for international fashion magazine Vogue.

If what was seen on the runway of Mercedez-Benz Fashion Week Tbilisi Spring 2016, Georgia is making a name for itself as one of the great shoe producers, writes Satenstein in her November 12 online piece for the iconic magazine.

The weekend was a testament to the flourishing fashion scene in and around the post-Soviet republic, and almost every designer who showed also created their own shoes.”

"The age-old tradition of shoemaking has stuck with fashion-forward Georgians: Plenty of "Made in Georgia” labels are also crossing borders inside footwear. Just this past year, designer Tamar Areshidze, who first gained popularity with her "Lightning Wedge,” which had LED crystal–style lights in the heels, had some of her other architectural works of vertiginous art—like her clear-heeled "Walking on Water Shoes” and wooden-soled "Levitating Shoes”—displayed at the Brooklyn Museum’s exhibition Killer Heels: The Art of the High-Heeled Shoe."

Satenstein goes on to discuss other leading Georgian shoe/clothing designers and local brands such as Eloshi and the label’s designer Lela Eloshvili, designers Anuka Keburia and Tamuna Ingorokva, local brand Anouki and Georgian-born, Paris-based designer Ketevane Maissaia.

Georgia is traditionally known for its knowledge of shoemaking, which has existed here since ancient times,” says Maissaia, echoing the sentiments of her fellow designers back home. "It is a small country with a very strong personality.”

Now that small country is stepping up—and heading straight into our closets, writes Satenstein.

Read the full article here: www.vogue.com