Sofia Tchkonia. Photo: Grigor Devejiev for Buyers Store.
As part of our #culturepersists campaign, we’re launching a podcast series where SLEEK’s Editor-in-Chief Grace Banks will speak to influential people across the arts on how culture will move forward following the coronavirus pandemic. The series will explore how creativity is impacted by the current crisis, and how culture will change in the future.
For the second episode in the series, Grace spoke with the founder and creative director of Mercedes Benz Fashion Week Tbilisi, Sofia Tchkonia, from her home in Tbilisi, Georgia. Sofia discusses life under lockdown in Tbilisi, how the current crisis is affecting her day-to-day and how the Georgian fashion industry will adapt and change after the crisis, particularly in light of cancelling the upcoming edition of Mercedes Benz Fashion Week Tbilisi, which was due to be held at the end of April.
"I am sure that this crisis in the world will help us to be afterwards more creative, to have completely different values of our lives, and that it will be the new beginning. We went to this point where something needed to happen to change things, now we need to start from zero and we'll start with a different energy full of support and humanity."