Mercedes-Benz Fashion Week Tbilisi shows its best

Georgia is becoming a bustling hub of a talent, while its capital Tbilisi is creating a name for itself in the region for its flourishing fashion scene, attracting the likes of international buyers, concept store owners and fashion bloggers.

Local and international designers, artists and creative minds showcased their vision and latest fashion trends for Fall/Winter 2016-2017 at Mercedes-Benz Fashion Week Tbilisi, which took place on May 5-9.

Mercedes-Benz Fashion Week Tbilisi featured more than 40 shows, which included catwalks and exhibitions, created a melting pot of Eastern European-meets-Central Asian chic.

Diana Kvariani Fall/Winter 2016-2017 collection. Photo by N. Alavidze/Agenda.ge.

‘Let’s Turn Georgia’s Fashion Industry into a Profitable Business’ was the motto of this season’s Mercedes-Benz Fashion Week Tbilisi. For this reason Fashion Week organisers invited influential buyers to attend this year’s shows and to launch Georgian designers’ creations into the international fashion arena.

Mercedes-Benz Fashion Week Tbilisi hosted several special guests including designer Herve Leger, supermodel of the 1990s Sylvia Gobbel and influential fashion blogger Diane Pernet.

Exhibition by local designer Simon Machabeli. Photo by N. Alavidze/Agenda.ge.

Meanwhile local and international fashion journalists were in town to attend and write about the event. The five-day fashion event will be covered by Vogue, Grazie Italy, La 7, Elle Magazine Germany, Tank magazine, Ellet Italy, Conde Nast Traveller, Hello Fashion, style.com and other fashion magazines and TVs.

The main venue for this year’s Fashion Week was the Museum Of Modern Art, located in central Tbilisi.

Mercedes-Benz Fashion Week Tbilisi will continue on May 11 with the international fashion design contest BENEXT, which will discover young, talented designers. The winning designers will be invited to study in world-leading fashion schools. In total 25 young designers will take part in the design contest.

Ladies, it’s time to play

The first day of Mercedes-Benz Fashion Week Tbilisi opened with a runway show by local designer Avtandil Tskvitinidze under his label AVTANDIL.

Fall 2016 inspiration: The rise of virtual reality and the first video games was translated into pixelated prints and blocklike embroidery. Photo by Vogue.com.

The designer was inspired by internet games. AVTDANDIL printed the virtual world on material using a high tech laser and embellished his pieces by using elements of iconic internet games such as Mario and Tetris to create a mix of male and feminine silhouettes.

Together with local models, supermodel of the 1990s, icon and a muse of a famous photographer Helmut Newton, internationally recogised model Sylvia Gobbel sashayed down the catwalk. She perfectly fit the strong, self-confident image created by AVTANDIL and led the line of local top models.

Sylvia Gobbel opened AVTANDIL show. Photo by Vogue.com.

One of the most memorable shows of Mercedes-Benz Fashion Week Tbilisi was Djaba Diassamidze’s show, whose whole collection sold out once the show was over. One of the buyers was so attracted to the Djaba Diassamidze Fall/Winter 2016-2017 collection and bought all the pieces.

Djaba Diasamidze Fall/Winter 2016-2017. Photo by Vogue.com.

For the upcoming seasons Diassamidze offered long evening dresses, dominated by velvet and plumage.

Models wearing long evening black and red dresses created by Djaba Diassamidze. Photo by Vogue.com.

Mercedes-Benz Fashion Week Tbilisi ended with Datuna Sulikashvili’s black and golden show under the label DATUNA.

This was the third Mercedes-Benz Fashion Week Tbilisi after the inaugural show in May 2015. Next Mercedes-Benz Fashion Week Tbilisi will be held in this autumn.

Next Mercedes-Benz Fashion Week Tbilisi will be held in this autumn. Photo by N. Alavidze/Agenda.ge.