Study and preservation of folk traditions and experience of folk arts and crafts of the Armenian people, spiritual and cultural values of Armenians, Armenian literature and fine arts, the revival of unique clothing items from different regions of historical Armenia, the creation of stylized costumes and accessories with ethnic elements, the introduction of the Armenian national costume “Taraz” into modern fashion, cultural and educational activities. Right this important mission is carried out by the “Teryan” Cultural Center.

“The Teryan Cultural Center was founded in the early 2000s”, — says director of the center Lilit Melikyan. “During this period, the center managed to collect a large amount of popular science literature, as well as create a digital library on the topic “Taraz — Armenian National Costume”. In addition, the center is constantly working with ethnographers and other professionals in the field, who regularly visit the center to take part in the process with their advice on the faithful reproduction and restoration of traditional clothing.

The staff of the center have access to various museums, as well as to archives, and work is also carried out there. Thanks to many years of painstaking work, a full complex of national clothes has been created in 8 regions of Historical Armenia, including Van — Vaspurakan, Artsakh — Syunik, Yerevan, Karin — Erzrum, Sebastia, Kilikia and others. In addition, the center is engaged in the revival of Armenian traditional embroidery. We have a school of Armenian embroidery — the only one of its kind. Almost all the costumes of the center are covered with traditional embroidery or made using various batik techniques”.

Many people ask why the center is named after the famous Armenian poet Vahan Teryan. The president and creator of this truly outstanding and respectable project, Hakobyan Arushan s/o Hovhannes, is an art critic, who has been engaged in Teryan’s work for many years, writes articles and books on the mentioned topic. One of the sides of the center’s activities is also devoted to the preservation of Armenian literature and fine arts; exactly that was this project’s beginning with gradually expanding its boundaries.

“In art there is no a little poetry, a little music, a little painting, we have a cultural center where there is music, where there is poetry, where there is national dress and in general a lot of interesting and valuable things about Armenia”, — says Lilit Melikyan. “Step by step, starting with Vahan Teryan, we came to such a powerful symbiosis that represents the culture of Armenia as a whole”.

Lilit Melikyan herself, being the director of the center, is an artist-designer by profession. In her student years, she studied the national costume, created her own collection using national ornaments. This was done solely out of love for the traditions of the native country, without any claims to innovation. Then the idea was formed to prove to people that the national costume can be popular also today. “We wanted to create clothes that would be both fashionable and ethnically purely Armenian at the same time”, — Lilit continues. “But in order to do this, you need to thoroughly understand all the ornaments, why they painted and embroidered in this way, and not otherwise. The embroideries “encrypted” amulets, wishes, and indeed history, each pattern carries information. Our embroidery speaks not only of pagan symbols, but also of the embroidery method. We prepare the national costume with an understanding of what was on the mind of a person when he created it, and why he wore such pompous clothes, even as a simple peasant. In the process of studying, we understood that we have a rich culture that originated long before the adoption of Christianity. Yes, we want to tell the world about Armenia as a state that had a fully developed culture in the pre-Christian period”.

The study of Teryan’s people began with the fact that they found an ethnographer who decided to help them in this matter; then the Ministry of Culture joined in, which gave permission to work in the archives of museums. The center was engaged in research, not production, but gradually people began to turn for national costumes. These were dance groups and troupes, singers, creative teams. And then the Cultural Center “Teryan” took up production. Now the center collaborates and creates clothes for public people, people of art, for performances, films, music videos, photo shoots, all kinds of projects, including charitable ones, etc.

REGINA RAE is a professional photographer, member of the “DISFO” Association of Children and Family Photographers. She appreciates the true manifestations and naturalness on the film-frame, therefore, she always strives to be inspired with a person, be it a child or an adult. In 2014, Regina took part in the exhibition of children and family photographers “Emotions”, in the exhibition of photographs at the opening of the business club “Kilikia”.

www.RegiRei.com

The second year running “Arm Fashion Day”-2016 is held in Moscow — a show that has proved itself as an important and major event in the fashion industry. This year, a show of collections by Armenian fashion designers was held at the end of May in the Golden Palace Entertainment Center. “Arm Fashion Day”-2016 gathered 8 Armenian designers. Thus, Aram Nikolyan presented a new collection “Urfa”, as well as an enlarged collection of “Pregomesh” accessories for the Armenian singer Sirusho; head of the cultural center “Teryan” Lilit Melikyan presented the new collections “Carpet” and “Khachkar” (Cross-Stone); the founder of the wedding salon “El’ka” Hasmik Abrahamyan presented wedding dresses from the new collection; the fashion designer Ani Manukyan, who lives in Moscow, showed a collection of evening dresses, and bathing suits by “Varda TM” brand were presented for the first time by fashion designer, famous dancer Vardanush Martirosyan, and the “Arm Fashion Day” became her debut.

In the frames of the show, a competition was held for novice-designers, for which a large number of applications were received. The three leaders were chosen by online voting, i.e. Margarit Nanushyan, Tigran Vahanyan and Roza Minasyan. According to the voting results of the jury – those are designer Armen Yeritsyan, shoe-designer Tigran Alberti and stylist Yesai Simikyan, Margarit Manushyan was recognized as the winner. She obtained a certificate with the ability to exhibit her collection for sale in one of the Moscow multi-brands for two months.