Ako Zazarashvili is a designer born in Georgia who presently lives in Spain. In spite of his young age he already have an incredible experience. With 24 years old he has already produced three collections. In addition to attract the interest of some of the most influential protagonists of the Spanish fashion’s scene he is truly a talented person who is making something new, fresh, extremely rare and impressive. In his last collection “Herrero de Seda” – which means “silk’s blacksmith” – he suggest a romantic elegance obtained by the fusion of antithetical elements.
The strong passion for his work allowed him to travel to Georgia, spending a lot of energies and money, to acquire the ability of chisel the iron to create wonderful jewelry-garments. His sacred vision of fashion as the best form of art pushes him towards a deep research with magnificent results. The experts in fashion already called him “the new Alexander McQueen”, we will call him a true genius.
You discovered your vocation for fashion in Spain, while you were studying Fine Arts. What happened exactly? How was at the very beginning?
The decision of being a fashion designer was very natural, something that started to flow during my childhood until the moment of the beginning of the university.
Do you think that the study of Fine Arts helps you to be more original doing your job? Do your artistic background makes your works richer in terms of inspiration?
Of course. The knowledge and the experience always help you to be more confident in what you do. My inspirations are always very different between them, so the knowledge becomes a sort of a useful guide when I have to develop the ideas for my collections.
You realized your first runaway with 18 years old and the next year the second one without experience in cut and dressmaking; you travelled to Georgia to learn new techniques to realize your last collection and you are living in one of the European countries in which for the designers the way to get fame is one of the most difficult. Do you have a point of reference, which push you to work hard and to spend all your energies in what you do?
To do something that you feel in your heart is never a sacrifice. I’m lucky because I’m very happy doing my job and I don’t like to save efforts if the goal is to realize a dream.
Your last collection, “Herrero de seda”, is based on an icon of the Virgin Mary, on references to byzantine art and on the different aspects of the character of your mother. Is it something exceptional or do your origins always have a central influence on your job?
I think that the context in which I grew up has always influenced my inspirations in certain way. My mother is a very classical person, who loves the Baroque. I inherit this part of me from her. “Herrero de seda” was something exceptional. The job of my father – who is a jeweller – inspired me to create jewel garments, like “Body”, made with 2.500 crystal pearls or the dress made with metal and set with 210 semi-precious gem stones. I try to transmit the character of my mother through the use of certain materials. The use of the metal indicates her strength; the silks and the muslins represent the romantic and vulnerable aspects of her personality.
For the concept of your new collection also the antonyms are very important. Do they have a great importance in your vision of elegance? Is this a concept that also reflects some aspects of your personality?
I love to mix up drastic, opposite inspirations and from that point on to create a harmony through my vision of fashion.
How do you select the fabrics that you use for you collection and how do you do the research on fabrics? Is there any material that you always use that you personally like more than others? Is there any concrete feeling that you want the fabrics to communicate?
I think that some of the most important concepts that identify in the better way my work are the volumes of the shapes that I create and the fabrics that I use. For me the fabrics are essential and I work on it in an artisanal way. I used to texture and transform the fabrics I’m also able to touch them even before create them… It’s an obsession!
You worked as a member of the committees of the curators of some of the most interesting fashion’s exhibitions in Madrid: one about the work of Yves Saint Laurent and the other about Jean Paul Gaultier. Do these kind of experiences have some particular importance for your work as a designer?
Nowadays fashion is different form the past. You will achieve advances and improvements by knowing the origins, the starting points of fashion, as the cut, the dressmaking, the design and the different techniques. I had the luck to see the garments of the most memorable age of fashion; I had the luck to have access to the past, to dresses that are more than 60 years old in the case of that of YSL.
Recently on of the most important Spanish fashion review described you as “the new Alexander McQueen”. Surely these moments in the life of a designer are very exciting, but sometimes it can also became a sort of burden. How do you feel? How do you relate yourself with this circumstance?
For me this was a way of seeing people’s expectations of me. To have people’s confidence is to have responsibility and of course being described as “the new McQueen” was a great praise for a lot of reasons.
In the matter of designers, there is someone who was a real starting point for the development of your work?
At the very beginning I didn’t have many means to supports the learning of designing or sewing. I always admired the creativity of John Galliano, the elegance of Valentino or the embroideries of Elie Saab. I like to aspire to something great and they are extraordinary creative persons and we have to learn from them.
