Face to face with Galib Gassanoff among the LVMH Prize finalists

Through hands, tradition is transformed and becomes an innovative language in the production of beauty and value. Craft 4.0 is the title of the new column that HTSI inaugurates, starting with this issue, with Sara Sozzani Maino. The choice is to enhance the talent of innovation and continuity, that handmade which today weaves the fabric of a luxury defined by selection and time, much more than exclusivity, and which, on this basis, intercepts the younger generations. A structured creativity, but free to express itself in the one-of-a-kind, in operations straddling craftsmanship and art. Staying out of the nagging rhythm of production on a global scale, there is a new generation of talent that has managed to carve out, in the traditional competitive economic system, a framework of meaning beyond the niche.

It is a culture of doing that energises the great systems of fashion, design and services. Without being part of it, it supports, and sometimes anticipates, its evolution. Precisely for this reason, an observatory on the most interesting voices of the handmade, far from being nostalgic or merely the protection of a historical and social heritage, opens a glimpse into the future. The protagonist of this first episode is Galib Gassanoff, a Georgian designer of Azerbaijani origin who grew up in a Muslim family in an orthodox country and immersed in a variety of languages and local craft traditions. At the age of eighteen, he moved from the suburbs of Tbilisi to Milan. And this is where Sara's story begins.

I met Galib in 2016, when he had just started Act N°1 with Luca Lin. Since then, his determination to preserve and give visibility to cultures, as well as to defend rights and social values, has been a constant on his path. A clear vision, rooted in a deep respect for identity and diversity. Galib was trained in contact with the handed-down gestures, daily rituals and manual practices of the communities of the various ethnic groups in his country. It is in this environment that his deep respect for matter, for the time of creation and for the intelligence of the hands was born.

When he arrived in Italia, he brought this heritage with him and embarked on a path that immediately united research, tailoring and contemporary vision, first as co-founder and co-designer of Act N°1, which he accompanied all the way to the Spring/Summer 23 fashion show, and today with Institution, which takes his vision on creative and production responsibility to a new and more mature expression and which, by the way, has just won the Zalando Visionary Award 2026.

La gonna pezzo unico della sfilata Institution P/E 26 fatta con i giunchi di Typha Latifolia, di solito usati per le borse, e lo schizzo di partenza.

It is not simply fashion: it is an act of continuity and awareness that transforms craftsmanship and memory into instruments of contemporary dialogue. A return to the roots and, at the same time, an act of building towards the future. The latest collection involved the women's communities of the Masallı and Lankaran districts in south-eastern Azerbaijan, who hand-weave Typha latifolia, the reed that grows in the wetlands of the Caspian Sea. Traditionally, the plant is harvested, dried and woven to make baskets, fences, household items, not wearable garments. Galib's idea is to expand a network of community handicrafts, to support the passage of knowledge between generations. He takes, for example, the carpet-making techniques of Borchaly, but instead of wool, he uses cotton shoelaces, which are the brand's DNA. His project is testimony to how culture, heritage and know-how are essential elements not only to build a brand, but to create a value system that puts the human factor at the centre.