‘A Dream for All and None’. An avant-garde fashion brand, where dreams can move the mountains. Presenting ‘Ad Astra’ by Evgeny Avetisian.
Ad Astra Manifesto:
“We encourage the utmost freedom of creation. We understand the hardships it implies. We are ready to take one more step further.”
Per Aspera Ad Astra
Ad Astra fashion brand was founded in 2015 by Evgeny Avetisian after a five-year stint designing and travelling around the old world countries including, but not limited to France, Kuwait, India, China and Hong Kong.
With a small but dedicated following in the underground and avant-garde communities, who prize Ad Astra slim-fitting leather and tailor jackets, flowing bias-cut jersey skirts, tops and dresses, Evgeny Avetisian explores the “in-between-ness” of dualisms like high/low and presence/absence in an astonishing range of original pieces. The label he is building thrives of an innovative, intellectually potent forces introducing deconstruction, asymmetry, and monochromatic colour schemes as a new paradigm for conceptual and radical ‘anti-fashion’ aesthetics in lifestyle. Classical and nostalgic influences to modern romantic glamour, the Brutalist and the Minimalist design, and an ascetic tribalism, all inspire Ad Astra to explore further the asymmetrical tunics, extravagant dresses mixed with sirwal shorts and harem pants, that all represent a relentlessly original view of womenswear at once strong and soft, ancient and futuristic, priestly and profane. Ad Astra brings out a distressed sensibility with a cutting edge couture-like sophistication.
The story started in Paris, where Evgeny Avetisian studied and grew artistically and culturally. The influence of museums, such as Centre George Pompidou, Palais de Tokyo, Louvre and Musee d’Orsay all cultivated the taste and sharpened the eye. The unforgettable walks across the Rue Saint-Honoré with all its high fashion boutiques encouraged the imagination. Window shopping in a then cult like “Colette” concept store or daydreaming around luxurious “Le Bon Marche” department store, as well as the areas like Saint Germain and Palais Royal kept the sanity and the focus intact, while studying the arts and the crafts of fashion and conceptualism between libraries, fashion schools, arts schools and product design schools. The concept stores and the product of ‘Anti-Fashion’ greatest designers inspired every aspect of everyday life in Paris.
Evgeny Avetisian was so obsessed and consumed by the creative process, that upon finishing his Bachelor Degree in fashion, he joined the team of atelier and design studio of John Galliano (a then creative director of Christian Dior). While assisting the late Steven Robinson, John Galliano’s right hand man, Evgeny Avetisian began his career in fashion industry as a designer, learning everything he possibly could about attention to details, textiles manipulation, deconstruction of garments and pattern making as well as the fashion business as a whole, while discovering the inner workings of the Fashion Luxury industry. His whimsical dreams had turned into reality.
Subconsciously Ad Astra brand concept was being born, and necessity for independent path grew. After learning from the best in the industry and working in design studios of several high profile luxury houses, Evgeny Avetisian dedicated himself to his solo career as a fashion designer/entrepreneur, and with that travelling around Europe commenced, while working on denim and casual wear projects. Eventually the search for inspiration and opportunities led to Middle East, where influenced by Dishdashas and Abayas, tunics and harem pants were taking over. It was Kuwaiti clean and starry night sky that brought forward the idea to use Celestial Bodies for names and titles of the collections and the garments, and it was the stars trajectories calculations and numbers that predominantly influenced the shape and techniques of the patterns, as well as the fit of the garments. Ad Astra started gaining notoriety in some fashion circles and Kuwaiti concept store Number 4 stocked some of its first collections and positioned it next to the likes of Comme Des Garcons and Yohji Yamamoto, while encouraging the further development of the brand. By that time Evgeny Avetisian has already moved to Hong Kong, Ad Astra was conceptually grown and the brand was officially registered.
Since then Ad Astra has been steadily growing its product range and it is currently stocked in concept stores internationally around fashion cities such as London, Paris, Shanghai, Hong Kong, Tokyo as well as online. Brand focuses primarily on womenswear but occasional small menswear capsule collections do also occur. The style is focused on sharp, but asymmetrically draped look. The finest fabrics are from sustainable sources, with a big focus on innovations within textiles, such as ecovero, which a sustainable, more eco-friendly type of viscose, or organic cottons that minimise the water waste, or recycled polyesters, that can achieve creative textures and feel. The colour palette is monochrome with all shades of grey from white to black and with occasionally appearing desaturated deep shades of purples, blues, greens, dust and rust tones.
Ad Astra is a Latin phrase meaning “to the stars”. The phrase has its origins with Virgil, who wrote in his Aeneid: “sic itur ad astra” meaning ‘thus one journeys to the stars’ and “opta ardua pennis astra sequi” meaning ‘desire to pursue the high (hard to reach) stars on wings’. Yet another origin comes from Seneca the Younger, who wrote in Hercules: “non est ad astra mollis e terris via” implying ‘there is no easy way from the earth to the stars’.
Per Aspera Ad Astra (or, less commonly, ad astra per aspera) is also a popular Latin phrase meaning “through hardships to the stars”. The phrase is one of the many Latin sayings that use the expression Ad Astra, and serves as main drive force and motivational manifesto for the brand and Evgeny Avetisian personally.
As driven by reflective and philosophical lifestyle Ad Astra adapts its tagline quoting — “A Dream for All and None”. An Homage to Friedrich Nietzsche’s book “Zhus Spoke Zarathustra” which carries a tagline quoting “A Book for All and None”. Ad Astra explains its inspiration by the strive of achieving one’s goals and the growth within the development of one’s personality.
In the up-coming seasons Ad Astra expects to excite with some more allure and distinction, incarnating brutal chine, fearless sexuality, and gender fluidity, as well as extreme innovation in forms, contrasts and fabrics, sustainable fashion practices and expanding its supporters from rebellious anti-fashion kids to more elegant European women.
Since the beginning of year 2020, Ad Astra is stocked in and represented by omnifinery.com.
Text: Editorial Staff
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Evgeny is an art director and a global citizen based in Hong Kong and working between Asia and Europe.
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