Emerging Fashion Designers from Armenia Gain Recognition, Make it Work – The Armenian Mirror-Spectator

Inga Manukyan founded LOOM Weaving, a unique Armenian knitwear brand with her sister, Elen, in 2014. The brand successfully revives centuries-old handmade techniques. Its mission: to find a contemporary, new take on the design, development, and creation of Armenian knitwear production.

To wit, each item created mixes handmade knitting techniques with thoroughly modern machinery-designed patterns and colors.

The results, according to Zoe Magazine, are fashions “cosy and cute, bold and bright, ultra-fashionable and fabulous.”

Manukyan draws her greatest inspiration from traditional Armenian carpet weaving, which she studied at the Yerevan Academy of Fine Arts. Her designs reflect the same love of color, nature and line: Other noteworthy designs include a long sleeveless black dress that hints at skin underneath through its delicate knit screen pattern or below, the strapless white shabby chic dress that flows longingly to the ground.

Not surprisingly, Manukyan most favors Elsa Schiaparelli among the great designers. Interestingly enough, the woman who actually designed and knitted Schiaparelli’s gorgeous knit sweaters in the 1930’s, Aroosiag Mikaëlian, was an Armenian Genocide survivor.

Everything at LOOM Weaving is handmade using natural raw products. Says Manukyan: “I get inspiration from colors, interlacing yarns and handcrafted knitting techniques that I use in a modern style”

Mischa Simonyan

By the time Ijevan-born standout graduated fashion school in Paris, Simonyan already had three runway shows and several lines under his belt. Posh handbags, flowing silk scarves, elegant dresses, and men’s wear reminiscent of the Antwerp 6: this designer can seemingly do it all. He takes traditional Greek and Armenian mythology, for example, and abstracts a shape that embellishes a collar or sleeve on an otherwise sleek, contemporary look. His Aragil scarf uses Armenia’s national symbol the white stork to advantage, whether worn around the neck or more suggestively wrapped around one’s chest: Currently Simonyan makes all his clothes by hand, whether in his small home atelier in Ijevan or in his Paris apartment. He creates suede and leather handbags in grey or royal red that would look just at home in a science fiction flick as in a chic Parisian café.

Lined in rich suede of the same color, the red version recalls Han Chinese elegance.

Simonyan is also that rara vis, a designer fully engaged with the world beyond fashion. Born with a disability that affects his mobility, Mischa is positioning himself as a leading advocate for disability rights, using his platform to raise awareness and promote inclusivity, as the fashion industry becomes ever more engaged in social issues such as downcycling, recycling and sustainability.

Inspired by his idol Coco Chanel, Simonyan’s twentysomething eyes are set on using fashion to help change the world.

Other Armenian standouts to look out for include Anjel Darchinyan and her popular Dahjeli brand, whose simple, chic sleekness gives a nod to Jil Sander and Calvin Klein; sustainable designers Ruzanna Vardanyan/Ruzané and Nelly Serobyan; and rising under-30 star Anahid Sarian.

For fun hand-embroidered men’s shorts, relaxed pants and sexy beaded accessories, be sure to check out Man in Town, designed by Armen Galyan. A 2023 Vogue Italia article also singled out Hagop Shahinian (hagopshahinian.co/) and Armine Ohanyan as well as fab menswear designer Erika Chilingaryan/Platon FF as standouts from Yerevan Fashion Week 2023.

Watching over all this wonderfully eclectic Yerevan-based talent are Vahan Khachatryan and an amazing fashion den mother of sorts, Elen Manukyan. Together, the duo heads up the all-powerful Fashion and Garment Chamber of Armenia. The chamber and its team of eight people also produce Yerevan Fashion Week annually.

The 2024 edition will take place this coming November 8-10 in several locations, including the 100,000 square-foot Meridian Expo & Event Center.

The Chamber also keeps an up-to-date website of over forty top designers including bios and all relevant links—the perfect launching point for anyone interested in Armenian fashion.

The main challenge for Manukyan and her designers lies in making their designs cost-effective. Armenia is a small market and shipping designs internationally can be prohibitively expensive: “Logistics, fabrics, marketing/promotion and import/export formalities are challenging,” explains Manukyan.

On the flip side, Armenian designers are a great investment for anyone looking to support talented designers without the large capital investments required to launch brands in Europe or America. Hopefully Armenian designers will soon become better known internationally, with Yerevan serving as a dynamic regional fashion hub.