Young designer Tariel Tato Oragvelidze reweaves his identity: ‘No more betraying myself’

Part of the Future Generation at MAD, Tariel Tato Oragvelidze is one of the city’s most promising design graduates. Having trained in Georgia and completed a master’s degree in Italy, he arrived in Brussels with the hope of finally becoming the man and artist he truly is.

One winter’s day in Brussels, Tariel Tato Oragvelidze was attending a French class, surrounded by fellow newcomers. He was going through a challenging time, filled with melancholy. In a moment of distraction, he opened Google and typed: “knitting classes in Brussels.” He came across the ArBA-EsA school of art and enrolled.

Within a few months, Tariel Tato Oragvelidze had made a name for himself and was selected among other promising talents to exhibit at MAD Brussels as part of Future Generation. There, he will present an oversized, handmade jumper inspired by those worn by fishermen. In the photo above, he wears his latest creation – a more fitted piece, designed for his friend, performance artist Gio Megrelishvili.

To understand Tariel Tato Oragvelidze, maybe we need to trace back every stitch of his jumpers. The story begins in a small Georgian village, suspended between land and water on the coast of the Black Sea. As a teenager, Tariel Tato Oragvelidze would go out to sea alone with his grandfather’s small boat. “My childhood seemed ordinary, with loving parents, but they never really understood me. Going to sea was my way of connecting with my solitude.”

A Revelation

For his final-year project, he first imagined a sailor’s uniform, inspired by the English Victorian style – an emblem of the rigid elegance particular to the ruling classes, where everything is neat, restrained, and polished. But very quickly, he felt he was replaying a familiar scene, conforming, pleasing others, at the cost of his identity. The same pressure he felt when his parents, and society, refused to see that he is queer.

So he changed course. A return to the essential: to his grandfather’s boat, to the oversized, handmade, artisanal jumper. To a form of inner truth. “I hadn’t anticipated that this project would be so personal.” Now at home in Brussels, he hopes to make a living from his craft – crochet today, tapestry tomorrow – and vows never to betray himself again. “This fisherman’s wear project was a revelation. A form of psychotherapy.”