Cell Project Space

For a brief moment in the 1990s, radical young fashion in the region captured the international imagination – particularly that of the United Kingdom. Iconic sculptor and jeweller Andrew Logan brought his performances to Riga and Tbilisi, accompanied by BBC film crews. Designers Zandra Rhodes and Red or Dead’s Wayne Hemingway were among other notable participants, and in 1994, Paco Rabanne served as a jury member for the competition. A list of Central Saint Martins students in attendance suggests that Alexander McQueen may have witnessed the Assemblies firsthand. Pioneering feminist artist Eglė Rakauskaitė, who represented Lithuania at the 1999 Venice Biennale, presented wearable objects, while curator Raimundas Malašauskas, whose poetic, ephemeral methods informed what is now known as New Institutionalism, modelled for designer Sandra Straukaitė at Vilnius' UFA-inspired Fashion Infection. Meanwhile, in Georgia, the Assemblies helped shape the ethos and aesthetics of ‘anti-fashion’ – most recently brought to the global stage by Georgian designer Demna Gvasalia, artistic director of Balenciaga. The story of Untamed Fashion Assemblies – its impact on contemporary art, social change, and queer discourse in the region, as well as its latent influence on non-commercial and experimental fashion internationally – has yet to be fully explored.