HAYELI WHEN FASHION BECOMES A LIVING CANVAS
At the Palais de Tokyo during Paris Fashion Week, designer Armine Ohanyan unveiled HAYELI Autumn/Winter 2026, a collection titled "Multiple" that quietly challenged the conventions of the traditional runway. Presented as an immersive artistic encounter rather than a standard fashion show, the collection positioned fashion, identity and contemporary art within a shared visual and emotional dialogue.
The vast contemporary art space soon filled with more than 400 guests — editors, collectors, creatives and long-standing clients — all gathered to witness the designer’s latest vision. What followed felt less like a runway presentation and more like a living installation, where garments existed simultaneously as artistic expression and refined, wearable design.
The environment itself formed an integral part of the narrative. Monumental black-and-white portrait works by Armenian-American artist Tigran Tsitoghdzyan were placed throughout the venue, their hyper-realistic intensity shaping the atmosphere of the room. When the first model appeared, the moment carried a surreal quality — as if she had stepped directly out of the paintings, dissolving the boundary between canvas and body.
This collaboration with Tsitoghdzyan defined the opening sequence of the autumn/winter collection. His striking portraits were translated onto fabric, appearing across sculptural coats and fluid dresses, transforming garments into moving works of art. As the models moved through the space, the faces subtly shifted with light and motion, creating the uncanny impression that the images themselves were breathing on the body.
The colour palette remained deliberately restrained. Black, white, charcoal and stone-toned neutrals dominated the collection, occasionally punctuated by steel grey and muted silver. The controlled palette reinforced the architectural quality of the silhouettes, allowing structure and form to take centre stage.
At its conceptual core, Multiple explored the layered nature of identity within contemporary urban culture. Themes of memory, migration and personal history subtly informed the collection, reflecting the fluid ways in which identity evolves within a globalised world.
Sculptural silhouettes emerged through geometric construction and controlled volume, producing garments that balanced visual strength with practical wearability. Among the most memorable pieces was a dramatic portrait coat that translated hyper-realistic imagery into wearable art, allowing painting and fashion to occupy the same visual surface. Sharp geometric dresses echoed the clean lines of modern architecture, while layered monochrome ensembles offered a refined interpretation of conceptual dressing grounded in everyday wear.
In the end, HAYELI Autumn/Winter 2026 spoke in the language of duality. Art and fashion, structure and movement, memory and modern identity came together with quiet precision. In a season often defined by spectacle, Ohanyan’s vision revealed the power of restraint — a reminder that the most compelling statements in fashion are not always the loudest, but those that continue to live and evolve through the body that wears them.
