When you think epicenters of fashion, you think New York, Paris, Milan.

Well, it looks like everyone’s favorite cradle of civilization is quickly demonstrating that it is no slouch in the couture department itself. Allow me to break it down a bit.

As I’ve written already, Yerevan has a burgeoning street style scene with young, fierce women struttin’ their diverse stuff all over gentron. Women are slowly eschewing traditional ideas of how one should dress and are expressing their individuality and creative instincts. Then theres Fashion Week. Yerevan Fashion Week showcased the collections from various local designers as well as designers from abroad. The event is intended to take place annually and the organizers noted that they were surprised with how well the event was received commenting “people need something beautiful, fashion, new ideas and inspiration.” The goal is to eventually make Armenia the regional center for the fashion industry. If that’s not awesome enough, just wait!

Yerevan is also home to Vahan Khachatryan. After studying fashion in Italy, Khachatryan worked for Dolce and Gabbana (omg) before starting his own couture line. Showing clear influences from his D & G days, Khachatryan’s designs are deliciously over the top and baroque (I may or may not have written this entire post just to be able to use the word ‘baroque’ in a non-Art history-related sentence.) Combining elements of classical Armenian motifs with that modern flavor has made Khachatryan’s work unique and exciting. Please admire below:

Aside from producing new designers and ideas in the world of fashion, Armenia and Armenian culture is also a muse for the goddess that is Ulyana Sergeenko.

Born in Kazakhstan, Sergeenko is rapidly moving up the ladder of fashion elite for her delicate, ultra-feminine, Soviet-inspired beauties. And through it all, she frequently points to Armenia as a source of inspirations. Using this:

to create the pieces that occupy my dreams, like this:

Armenian motifs and fashion are getting an update and it is all kinds of awesome. I’m looking forward to the day that Yerevan will be mentioned in the same breath as New York, Paris and Milan. In the meantime, I’ll start prepping my OOTD.