Zalando’s Visionary Award Winner Was the Underdog CPHFW Needed. Zalando Visionary Award winner Galib Gassanoff brings INSTITUTION to Copenhagen Fashion Week with YAD, a deeply personal SS27 collection exploring heritage, memory and belonging.
O que aconteceu
The Zalando Visionary Award backs emerging designers whose work reaches beyond clothes alone, looking at design alongside innovation and social impact.
For 2026, that designer was Galib Gassanoff, founder of Milan-based label INSTITUTION.After winning the award during Copenhagen Fashion Week in January, Gassanoff received a €50,000 prize alongside mentorship, business development support and Zalando’s backing to bring his next collection to Copenhagen.
That collection arrived last week at the National Gallery of Denmark, where INSTITUTION made its Copenhagen Fashion Week debut with SS27, titled YAD.Its name contains the contradiction at the heart of the collection.
Por que importa
A pauta interessa a quem acompanha Moda porque altera expectativas e decisões práticas.
Consequência prática
In Azerbaijani, yad can mean “foreign” or “strange,” while as a borrowed word it can also signify “memory” or “to remember.” Gassanoff uses that tension to explore the slippery space between belonging somewhere and remembering it from elsewhere.Before the first model appeared, the collection’s ideas were already underfoot.
Carpets from the Caucasus, Anatolia, Northern Iran and Central Asia covered the runway, bringing objects carrying heritage and cultural memory into one of Denmark’s most significant art institutions.
For Gassanoff, that setting was deliberate.
Asked which detail felt most personal to him, he pointed to the carpets: “The carpet detail, because it’s part of my heritage and culture.” Staging the show inside a museum, itself a place built around preserving history, gave the gesture even more weight.Models crossed the carpets without shoes, wearing only hand-knitted jorabs, traditional socks associated with domestic life and colder months.
The Zalando Visionary Award backs emerging designers whose work reaches beyond clothes alone, looking at design alongside innovation and social impact. o movimento reforça a leitura de que decisões em Moda precisam ser acompanhadas com atenção aos dados e ao desfecho concreto.
For 2026, that designer was Galib Gassanoff, founder of Milan-based label INSTITUTION.After winning the award during Copenhagen Fashion Week in January, Gassanoff received a €50,000 prize alongside mentorship, business development support and Zalando’s backing to bring his next collection to Copenhagen. o movimento reforça a leitura de que decisões em Moda precisam ser acompanhadas com atenção aos dados e ao desfecho concreto.
That collection arrived last week at the National Gallery of Denmark, where INSTITUTION made its Copenhagen Fashion Week debut with SS27, titled YAD.Its name contains the contradiction at the heart of the collection. o movimento reforça a leitura de que decisões em Moda precisam ser acompanhadas com atenção aos dados e ao desfecho concreto.
In Azerbaijani, yad can mean “foreign” or “strange,” while as a borrowed word it can also signify “memory” or “to remember.” Gassanoff uses that tension to explore the slippery space between belonging somewhere and remembering it from elsewhere.Before the first model appeared, the collection’s ideas were already underfoot. o movimento reforça a leitura de que decisões em Moda precisam ser acompanhadas com atenção aos dados e ao desfecho concreto.
