Not just Gucci, Versace, Prada: the multicultural, millennial designers making a name in populist Italy
- Luca Lin and Galib Gassanoff of Act N°1 are breathing new life into the Italian fashion industry with fresh looks and progressive thinking
- Luxury Italian brands trying to make amends for their racist faux pas in recent times should definitely pay attention to this rising pair
Luca Lin and Galib Gassanoff are an anomaly on Milan’s homogeneous fashion scene. The two twenty-somethings are the founders of Act N°1, a three-year-old fashion label that’s a breath of fresh air in Italy’s staid fashion industry, which is dominated by powerhouses such as Gucci, Prada and Versace.
Lin and Gassanoff, as their surnames suggest, have multicultural backgrounds: Lin was born in Italy but his parents hail from Wenzhou, China; Gassanoff is from Azerbaijan and moved to Italy to study fashion, although he was raised in Georgia, where his family still lives.
The designers met at fashion school in Milan and, after working for various brands in the city and other parts of Italy, took the brave step of setting up their own label, whose name derives from the idea that this is their first act in their fledgling career.
Using family funds, the pair established the company in the town of Reggio Emilia, in Italy’s north, to stay close to garment factories located there, and ran the business as a two-man show before setting up a proper design studio in Milan six months ago.
