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 13 female weavers still mastering the craft, with whom Gassanof collaborated.

Scattered in between were floor sweeping skirts with high slits paired with glove-equipped peplum blazers, handkerchief tops in supple leather and a wondrous topcoat crafted from satin usually employed for linings and grainy leather framing the lapels. 

Rug-like throws turned into asymmetrical tops edged in fringes and barely there tops embellished with vintage ivory buttons qualified as one-of-a-kind collectibles of sorts, more sculptures than garments. 

A variation of the same piece decked in small action cameras was blatantly grotesque — and purposefully so — a reminder that fashion artifacts hold traces of those who create them, artisans who could now see the world through the garment’s eyes.