Founded in 2012 by the former creative director of Harper's Bazaar Russia, A.W.A.K.E. is a contemporary clothing brand, whose signature style blends classic taste with influences deriving from 70s aesthetics and the diverse Japanese culture. Moreover, Natalia Alaverdian has a multi-disciplinary and multifaceted background, which includes experiences as a stylist, art director and photographer, as well as fashion designer. Hence the references multiply and echo from art to music to cinema, in particular Kubrick’s masterpieces.
The brand proposes a conceptual fashion, with lines that are sometimes tailored and sometimes deconstructed, always slightly dissonant. Masterfully designed and tailored dresses are flanked by disassembled & remixed jackets and skirts, in a dynamic re-edit of the fashion house’s key pieces. The global success of the accessories has made them quite the focal point of the collection. Alaverdian has repeatedly stated that she considers shoes and bags as part of some kind of "armour”: leather mules and ankle boots with tassels or fringes, asymmetric sandals, quilted bags of unusual shapes and sizes, sculpted metal details. For example, the holo and iridescent materials of the bags and outerwear seem to have come out of “2001 – A Space Odyssey”: to the touch, they seem to be paper or industrial tarpaulins or “such stuff as dreams are made on”.
The world of A.W.A.K.E. is driven by a “complicated simplicity” where the collection of accessories is a significant example of the unconventional aesthetics and technical perfectionism that this label achieves so well. The brand name itself is an invitation to capture all the beauty that surrounds us: in fact, the acronym A.W.A.K.E. stands for ‘All Wonderful Adventures Kindle Enthusiasm.’ And enthusiasm is certainly the accessory that each of us should never be without.