Last December, a prominent spot on Yerevan’s central Abovyan Street was home to an outpost of the Turkish fast-fashion chain Mavi.

But following a ban on Turkish imports into Armenia, a reaction to Turkey’s extensive support for Azerbaijan in last year’s war, Mavi is gone, replaced by a homegrown substitute: Prime, a new Armenian label selling hipster reinventions of everyday basics. The store is packed with sweatshirts, jeans and T-shirts of all shapes and sizes. A selection of accessories – handmade by one of the salespeople – hangs on the wall.

Before the ban, clothing comprised the single largest category of Turkish imports to Armenia. Local production of textiles had been slowly growing for years, but has been kickstarted by the embargo.

“The ban helped a lot,” said Elen Manukyan, the co-founder of the Fashion and Design Chamber, a non-profit aimed at supporting and promoting Armenian designers. As Turkish clothing has disappeared from the Armenian market, local producers started offering a broader variety of products instead of the usual assortment of underwear and socks. “In addition, the war changed people’s attitude towards Armenian-made products. Consumers started prioritizing Armenian things,” Manukyan told Eurasianet.

The Fashion and Design Chamber supports local designers by helping them access investment, training, and international fashion shows. The government has helped, too, providing tax cuts to major textile investors.

Over 100 large and small companies are engaged in the sector. Still, the activity is a far cry from Soviet days, when Armenia exported clothing throughout the USSR and textiles employed 150,000 people, a quarter of the workforce, compared to around 8,000 today.

The Armenian government first developed a strategy to promote development of the industry in 2013. The plan drew attention to unused potential manufacturing capacity and projected double-digit growth. Production has indeed grown significantly, with output value tripling between 2015 and 2019 (data for 2020 is not yet available).

Source: Turan News Agency