Brand to discover: Act n°1

Founded in the early 2016, Act n°1 is a brand that combined two opposite worlds, the one of the street style and the one that recalls the haute couture.

Originally from Reggio Emilia, and afterwards moved to Milan, Act n°1 takes inspiration from the antique chinese art and from the azerbaijani’s craftsmanship, realizing garments with embroideries and hand made materials.
Is the outcome of two creative minds that were encountered an unique aesthetic, the ones of Luca Lin, of Chinese origin and Galib Gassanoff, Azerbaigian native: the intent is to communicate a piece of the designers’s history, playing with their multicultural background, with a focus on the scrupulous research of materials.

The first collection, presented at White Show in Milan, was selected by Vogue Italia to present the SS 2017 at the Vogue Talent Corner during the Milan fashion week in september 2016. A year later, in July 2017, won “Who Is On Next?”, the competition for emergent talents organized by Altaroma in collaboration with Vogue Italia.

With Act n°1, we refer to the moment 1, the two founders’s first act of life, that inspired them in the project’s development: the essence of the brand’s image is strictly connected to the history that lies behind every garment.

The inspirations behind each collection comes always by the private life of both, especially from their history, childhood and family of origins, from which, even having distant backgrounds geographically and culturally speaking, find always a meeting point.

The peculiarity of Act n°1 is the craftsmanship: in fact, inside their collections, can be found a certain number of garments that require long processing steps.
An example are the “hybrids”: it’s about two garments designed and manufactured separately, that are assembled together one above the other creating an irregular aesthetic that is identifying of the brand.

For the spring summer 2020 they proposed an interactive show: A black catwalk covered with a water surface, designed with the aim to splash the front row at the model’s steps. To the front row guests were given blankets to cover themselves, made with the fabric’s leftovers of the previous season.

Talking about the collection, the designers have played with the deconstruction, by taking the classic silhouettes and transforming them into contemporary clothes, embellished by feathers and creations realized with a metallic wire and glass beads, that once again confirm the importance of the craftsmanship for the brand.

Innovation, craftsmanship, well defined aesthetic, Act n°1 is the emergent brand who is able to mix its two souls in an unique project with a strong visual impact, and to tell a contemporary story by maintaining ever-present its multicultural origins.

You can see the entire look-book of the SS 2020 collection on the official website Act n°1 and buy it online on Luisa Via Roma and Farfetch.

Act n°1 wasn’t the only brand to flooding the catwalk, have a look to our article: “Climate change: Balenciaga 2020-21 flooded Paris”.