Tekla Gurgenidze is a Tbilisi-based fashion designer whose practice is shaped by an academic foundation and a strong focus on garment construction and contemporary design language. She holds a Bachelor’s degree in Fashion Design from the Tbilisi State Academy of Arts, where she established her core design approach and technical discipline. Her early recognition as the winner of the Be Next Fashion Competition led to a full scholarship at Istituto Marangoni in Milan, further expanding her international outlook and exposure to global fashion systems.
Gurgenidze also pursued studies at the University of Florence, focusing on ethical fashion and conceptual design frameworks, and later completed an intensive program in pattern making and production, refining her expertise in structure, grading, and fabrication. This synthesis of conceptual thinking and technical precision defines her work, positioning her within a generation of designers navigating the intersection of craftsmanship, sustainability, and contemporary fashion narratives.
A syndrome, in medical terminology, describes a group of symptoms that together indicate a particular condition. SYNDROM adopts this definition as both a name and a conceptual framework—reframing it as a reflection of shared experiences, aesthetics, and expressions shaping a generation emerging from post-Soviet Tbilisi.
SYNDROM is a Tbilisi-based fashion label working across clothing, jewellery, and beauty, positioned at the intersection of fashion, object, and image. Founded in 2015, by Tekla Gurgenidze, the brand has developed a distinct practice rooted in experimentation, functionality, and a precise sensitivity to detail. Emerging from the city’s underground cultural landscape, SYNDROM reflects an environment defined by tension and contrast, where alternative spaces and subcultural movements inform new visual languages.
Within this context, the brand observes a specific set of cultural “symptoms”: the collision of high and low fashion, the merging of vintage and contemporary codes, and a persistent, resourceful creativity shaped by instability. SYNDROM captures this pattern as an identifiable condition-one that articulates a shared cultural identity grounded in time and place, yet continuously evolving.
At its core, SYNDROM approaches fashion as a tool for self-reflection and visual communication. Garments are conceived not as fixed statements, but as open structures-designed to be interpreted, recontextualized, and transformed by the wearer. Each piece operates as a medium for personal narrative, allowing multiple meanings to coexist and shift across different lived experiences.
The brand’s aesthetic language is experimental and resistant to fixed categorization, blending classical elements with punk sensibilities. It draws from the raw, industrial atmosphere of Tbilisi’s underground techno scene—spaces that function as sites of both escape and radical self-expression. Through presentations in venues such as KHIDI Club, Tbilisi Orgia, and the Evangelical Baptist Church, SYNDROM embeds its work within the physical and cultural fabric of the city.
Ultimately, SYNDROM proposes fashion as an evolving condition—one that frames the raw, often challenging beauty of everyday life in Georgia within a larger, cohesive system. Through this lens, the brand transforms overlooked details into signals of a broader reality, constructing a body of work that is at once analytical, expressive, and deeply connected to contemporary experience.
