Yerevan Fashion Week 2026 Built on Architecture
PublishedYerevan Fashion Week, which happened during the Erebuni Yerevan celebration of 2808, showed the country at its best. The fashion week platform showcased the uniqueness of the capital’s architecture and...
Yerevan Fashion Week, which happened during the Erebuni Yerevan celebration of 2808, showed the country at its best. The fashion week platform showcased the uniqueness of the capital’s architecture and history, with The Pink City as its central idea.
From the very beginning, international guests were introduced to the history of the country, starting with the Ancient Gods installation at the Erebuni Fortress, presented by emerging talents connected with Fashion Scout Armenia. The core message was to bridge the Armenian heritage with the contemporary creative generation.
Armenian Architecture as the Runway
But architecture was more than a setting during this week. Shows took place at the Red Bridge, at Zvartnots Cathedral, and at the Komitas Museum-Institute, and each venue did half the work before a single look appeared.
Red Bridge
The Red Bridge is the oldest preserved bridge in Yerevan, a stone bridge over the Hrazdan River. It was built in 1679 to replace an earlier bridge ruined by an earthquake, and it takes its name from the pinkish tuff stone used to build it, which fits the Pink City theme of the week. It was restored in 2025, and Soncess named its collection after it. RED BRIDGE was presented on the bridge itself and is about connection, transition, and the passage between past and future. At its heart is a vision of modern femininity: independent and strong, yet unafraid of vulnerability. A historic landmark becomes a symbol of freedom and new beginnings.
Komitas Museum-Institute
The Komitas Museum-Institute is dedicated to Komitas, a composer, choirmaster, folklorist, and founder of the Armenian national school of composition. It opened in January 2015 in Komitas Park, next to the Komitas Pantheon, where he is buried. The building by architect Arthur Meschian stands on the foundations of the former Palace of Culture, and its exterior resembles a temple. Loom Weaving's HYUSQ collection showed here. The collection took the composer's music as its starting point. Instead of copying a song, the designers tried to translate how his music feels: the delicacy, the luminosity, and the emotional depth of his compositions. The result is a visual language of soft tones, flowing movement, and bird symbolism, meant to evoke spiritual elevation and Armenian cultural memory.
Zvartnots Cathedral
Zvartnots was built in the middle of the 7th century under Catholicos Nerses III and is the oldest and largest aisled tetraconch church in historical Armenia. Its name means "celestial angels". It was largely destroyed in an earthquake in the 10th century, rediscovered between 1900 and 1907, and added to the UNESCO World Heritage List in 2000. Ruzane's collection was set against these enduring stones and explores the dialogue between permanence and transience: seasonless design paired with the fleeting beauty of flowers, bringing past, present, and the immediacy of the moment into one frame.
THEMIS MONUMENTAL and the Yerevan Cascade
The Yerevan Cascade is one of the city's most recognisable landmarks with its stairways, fountains and the Cafesjian Center for the Arts along the way. Carrying architecture as a muse, the THEMIS MONUMENTAL collection translated the geometry and colour palette of the Cascade into clothes. Through natural stone tones, unique silhouettes and rich texture, the collection lets you wear a piece of the city’s most cherished spots.
For a small country like Armenia, putting its name on the global market is crucial. This week showed that the process has already started: international guests came to see the scene for themselves, and Armenian fashion designers showed what they are capable of, with the country's own landmarks as their stage and inspiration. From the Red Bridge to Zvartnots, from the Komitas Museum-Institute to the Cascade, architecture carried the story of the week. Yerevan is called the Pink City, and it felt like the name suited the moment: a city that knows its past and is only starting to show its future.
Based in Zurich, HAY-HAY is an international creative platform and concept space dedicated to discovering independent designers, slow fashion, and cross-cultural storytelling worldwide.
