The Tamesis
There are only two days left until Situationist’s first official Paris Fashion Week show on Tuesday. But as we speak, brand founder Irakli Rusadze and his team feel more prepared than ever. “We’re ahead of schedule,” said stylist and photographer Davit Giorgadze, a longtime Rusadze collaborator who now serves as the brand’s artistic director. The Georgian brand has been holding shows in Paris since 2021, but paused last season to make some breathing room. “This collection is more organized. And we have almost everything designed.”
Rusadze did not go to fashion school, but grew up studying with local Georgian artisans and launched Situationist in 2016. The brand is known for its bold, architectural tailoring and outerwear, which are handmade by a team of female artisans. When we first met at his Tbilisi studio in 2018, Rusadze had just dressed Bella Hadid, was building a wholesale list that would eventually include Net-a-Porter and Ssense, and had received his first gift. Fashion track review. At the time, none of us could have foreseen the pandemic, growing political unrest in Georgia, war in neighboring Ukraine, or the collapse of several multi-brand retailers, which would slow Situationism and Georgian fashion’s broader progress.
Now the situationists have made some progress. It secured an undisclosed private investor in late 2025, allowing Rusadze to revamp the business from top to bottom and influence the Fédération de la Haute Couture et de la Mode to add Situationist to the official Paris show calendar for fall/winter 2026. (The brand has only had unscheduled shows before, and a handful of scheduled ones.) The funding will help the designer fund Tuesday’s show, relaunch his e-commerce site, invest in marketing and outdoor advertising in Georgia, and develop new categories like bags and shoes. He even plans to open a flagship store in Tbilisi in May to coincide with the next Tbilisi Fashion Week.
Tbilisi Fashion Week will return this summer after a two-year hiatus. The disruption follows political turmoil over a controversial “foreign agents” bill proposed by the ruling Georgian Dream party. The law requires NGOs and media outlets that receive foreign funding to register as foreign agents and be audited or even shut down. The country also passed an anti-LGBTQ+ propaganda bill in 2024. Both bills led to large protests in Tbilisi during 2024 and 2025, with many designers holding regular protests despite tear gas and other violent measures. When Georgia became a candidate to join the bloc in 2023, which would help minimize transport and import costs, the EU warned that the bills hurt its chances of joining the bloc.
