TIGRAN AVETISYAN

After originally arriving in London to pursue a degree in product design, Tigran Avetisyan changed direction after two years and enrolled in Central Saint Martins’ revered menswear course. Throughout the following four years, the Russia native honed his skills, supplementing academia with stints at international brands such as Acne Studios, Dunhill, and Lanvin. Sponsored by luxury conglomerate LVMH, the young designer’s graduate collection made headlines as a riotous proclamation of his personal and fellow students’ concerns with reality behind school doors. Slogans penned in harshly contrasting white on black chalk paint applied directly onto simple fabrics in light blues served as a visual diary of the preceding few months and an unsure future. The collection introduced some of Avetisyan’s principal themes, alongside a design signature in fabrics and cut. Referencing traditional workwear and institutional dress, the collection featured cropped trousers and oversized garments labeled as ‘One Size Fits None.’ Underpinned by the ethos of Pink Floyd’s “We don’t need no education” mantra, baggy coats fastening at the back appeared as the vestiges of a boyhood lost.

Since then, Avetisyan has left London and now operates from a studio located within the industrial surroundings of Moscow. Taped against barren walls are detailed sketches of the last two seasons, the garments progressing the theme set in his final year at university. Spring 2014 featured snug-fitting trousers exaggeratedly cropped just below the knee and worn with woolen socks and the ubiquitous black chalk paint, now a signature element. For Fall 2014, Avetisyan introduces his take on a period university classic, the Oxford bags. These loose-cut trousers were first adopted in the early Twenties as a defiant reaction to the university’s sartorial laws. In an experiment with fabrics, denim coats and jackets add a more recent emblem of youth culture.

While the first two collections of the fledgling label focused on his recent experiences as a student, Avetisyan explores his current situation within the wider industry through his Spring 2015 collection, ‘Duty Free for Him.’ “Having been traveling with my Fall 2014 collection and spending a lot of time at airports, I was thinking about how big fashion houses operate,” he explains. “Many of them would release collections only to promote sales of their perfume. In a way, a collection acts as an advertisement for a fragrance.” Imagining his label’s signature scent, Avetisyan mixed existing scents and decanted the alchemic concoction in a digitally printed hybrid of today’s bestselling luxury fragrances. The collection itself uses solely synthetic fibers and a new printing technique. “We print out various design elements on paper, like stripes or text, and rip them up, collage them, and only then transfer them using a heat press,” he explains of his process. “That way, the prints are impossible to replicate and each one is unique.” Artisanal prints are juxtaposed with the brand’s first logo-conscious branding, which includes a yellow symbol in the shape of the ubiquitous supermarket price tag above a link to the website.

Through at-times-guerrilla endeavors to establish a brand—as in a video wherein he can be seen pasting his own advertisement over others’ in a range of fashion magazines on a newsstand—Tigran Avetisyan’s collections seem primarily a personal tool of communication. However, several international stockists, which often sell out rapidly, and a loyal following are testament to the clothes’ wider adaptability and appeal.

For more information, please visit Tigran.co.uk.

Felix Bischof is a London-based writer and researcher.

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