It’s just two days out from Situationist’s first official Paris Fashion Week show on Tuesday. But when we speak, brand founder Irakli Rusadze and his team are feeling more prepared than ever. “We’re so ahead of schedule,” says art and image director Davit Giorgadze, a longtime collaborator of Rusadze’s and now art director of the brand. The Georgian label has been presenting in Paris since 2021, but took a pause last season to make some breathing room. “The collectsion is more organized. And we have literally everything styled out.”
Rusadze didn’t attend fashion school, but grew up learning from local Georgian artisans, before launching Situationist in 2016. The brand became known for its bold, architectural tailoring and outerwear, hand-produced by a team of women artisans. When we first met in his Tbilisi atelier, back in 2018, Rusadze had just dressed Bella Hadid, was building a wholesale roster that would ultimately include Net-a-Porter and Ssense, and had received his first Vogue Runway review. Back then, neither of us could have foreseen the pandemic, Georgia’s growing political unrest, a war in neighboring Ukraine, or the collapse of several multi-brand retailers, which altogether has slowed down progress for Situationist and Georgian fashion more broadly.
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Now, Situationist has some wind in its sails. It secured an undisclosed private investor at the end of 2025, allowing Rusadze to revamp the business from top to bottom and swaying the Féderation de la Haute Couture et de la Mode to let Situationist join the official Paris show calendar for Fall/Winter 2026. (The brand has previously only shown off-schedule, as well as staging several on-schedule presentations.) The money will help the designer fund Tuesday’s show, relaunch his e-commerce site, invest in marketing and out-of-home advertising in Georgia, and develop new categories like bags and shoes. He even plans to open a flagship store in Tbilisi in May, in line with the next edition of Tbilisi Fashion Week.
Tbilisi Fashion Week is returning this summer, after a two-year pause. The break followed political unrest in response to the controversial “foreign agents” bill introduced by the ruling Georgian Dream party. The law requires NGOs and media outlets receiving foreign funding to register as foreign agents, and become subject to audits or even closures. The country also passed an anti-LGBTQ+ propaganda bill in 2024. Both resulted in mass protests in Tbilisi throughout 2024 and 2025, with many designers protesting on a regular basis, despite tear gas and other violent measures. When Georgia became a candidate to join the European Union in 2023 — which could help minimize shipping and import costs — the EU warned that the bills had hurt its chances.
In this context — and as key retailers like Ssense falter — Rusadze’s business has contracted in recent years. To mitigate further declines, the brand started focusing on custom orders, including for Beyoncé’s Renaissance tour, as well as a smaller store network. “Georgia has always been a place where creativity exists alongside difficulty,” Rusadze says. “Continuing to build Situationist is a way to show resilience and to highlight the creative energy coming from Tbilisi. Culture can tell another story about a country, even during challenging times.”
As the time has come to rebuild, Paris offers the perfect platform. “Now felt like a good time for us to have a little retrospective of what we’ve been doing over the years and work out how to elevate it to another level,” says Louis Chasserot, Situationist’s head of brand, who has been at Rusadze’s side for the last decade. “The show feels like the best platform to present this new [phase].”
Building a fuller wardrobe
With the investment, Situationist is scaling its manufacturing capabilities. It’s common for Georgian labels to produce in Georgia and avoid the import costs of manufacturing in the EU. But Georgia doesn’t have the cross-category manufacturing capabilities of hubs like Italy or Portugal. “Until now, we were really keeping everything in Georgia, but we’ve started to propose a wider range of products,” Chasserot says. For FW26, the brand is introducing ‘Made in Italy’ manufacturing for part of the collectsion; new categories such as handbags and eyewear; and an expanded knitwear offering, using manufacturers in Nepal. “It’s about elevating the language of Situationist and building a vestiaire, with strong tailoring, more precise construction, and pieces that feel powerful.”
Back at home, the brand is building a bigger, “professional” atelier, which is less rustic and DIY than the current space. Situationist is also expanding its team, with a new office above the new store. “I think the environment has to change in order for the work itself to change,” Giorgadze says.
As part of its next era, Situationist’s FW26 collectsion is a “little bit more commercial” by design, Rusadze says. The aim is to offer a full wardrobe, rather than focusing on the statement, structural pieces that it’s made a name for. “We want it to feel like everyone can be included,” he says. “There’s everything from an evening dress to a bomber jacket you could wear everyday.”
Rusadze, Giorgadze, and Chasserot have built an impressive industry network over the years, so for their official debut, have secured an impressive roster of backstage talent and models through friends who are keen to support. Fresh from Ferragamo’s FW26 show, makeup artist Thom Walker is leading makeup; hairstylist Tom Wright, who worked with Marni and Diesel this season, will do hair; Simone Schofer cast the show and Dogukan Nesanir will style the show. The Situationist team also presented the brand’s trajectory to several modeling agencies in the hopes of booking strong models on a budget. “There are big models who want to work with us, but also they want to see the progress [of the brand],” Giorgadze says. “When [Azzedine] Alaïa didn’t have money, he was supported by the models. I think that’s what people should return to.”
“Building a brand takes patience and resilience,” Rusadze adds. “When I started, things were very different. Over time, I realized a brand is not only about clothes, but about the people and community that grow around it.”
With a refined show concept, an ambitious team and dose of newness, the brand hopes to secure more wholesale stockists this season. “We were on the verge of not showing again. It’s been so time-consuming and nerve-wracking,” Giorgadze says. “Also, the political climate everywhere, everything feels quite heavy. But people really believe in us. The investment came gradually, not forcefully, so we’re not pressured to do things we don’t want to do. I feel like all the years of hard work somehow paid off. I just hope that we will succeed the way we want.”
