ACT N°1 ITALY AND GEORGIA

They debuted with their Resort 2017, and the same underlying theme has remained the leitmotif in their subsequent collections. “Yes, our childhood memories, our multicultural background and the in uence of 1990s youth fashions – particularly grunge – are continually reappearing and always inspire our creativity.” Act N°1 is the brand established by Luca Lin and Galib Gassano , the former born in Reggio Emilia, Italy, to Chinese parents with a passion for art and traditional antiques, and the latter born in Georgia in a small village near the capital Tbilisi, precisely when the country was emerging from civil war, in 1994. Both studied fashion in their respective countries before meeting in Milan, where Galib had arrived thanks to a scholarship from the BeNext Platform founded by So a Tchkonia, which o ers the chance to study in Western fashion capitals to all Eastern European talents. “We don’t try to propose a new mood every season, but we want to be faithful to ourselves and describe who we were and who we are now,” say the winners of Who is on Next? 2017. What about their favourite materials? “As always, denim and silk satin dominate our collections, but in the SS 2018 there’s also a lot of cotton, as well as linen, crêpe de Chine and tulle. The shapes, meanwhile, can be de ned as oversize and owing, with our usual tailoring twist.” And as for their atelier, the one thing that can never be missing is Samantha, their lucky mascot mannequin. •