Galib Gassanof’s work is more attuned to artistry and research-intensive craft than mundane dressmaking.

For his recent solo fashion project Institution, the designer’s aim has been so far, and is for now, to explore what a brand with commercial goals – and restraints – simply could not.

A perfecto jacket with no armholes? Check. A top made of denim shoe laces or rattan placemats? Check.

There were more iterations on unrealistic clothes on the catwalk Friday morning, the designer’s second show. None was just a stunt, they all spoke, to different extents, of Gassanof’s roots.

The three closing looks – an apparent homage to Christian Dior’s New Look – featured full skirts made of weaved bulrush, a plant growing in the lowlands of his native Azerbaijan. There remains just one community of

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