Moscow-based emerging fashion designer Tigran Avetisyan has always been a bit of a rebel: not afraid to pour paint over newly tailored jackets, he has reinvented contemporary menswear, combining strong textures with bold slogans. His new video Duty Free Pour Homme is an advert for a perfume which doesn’t exist, and a crucial statement about the contemporary fashion industry.

Duty Free Pour Homme was inspired by the Duty Free airport shops Avetisyan passed on his travels. Sitting at the heart of his Spring/Summer 2015 collection, the fictional perfume serves as a comment on how big fashion houses operate, using fragrance as a tool to enhance their brand. “It’s actually the reverse logic of big brands, which produce seasonal collections only to promote and support sales of their best selling perfumes,” says Avetisyan.

Set against a background of dreamy, fluffy clouds, the video recalls the classic Calvin Klein perfume adverts of the 1990s — only played down, ironic and DIY. The video is touchingly romantic yet still mocks the way that love and seduction are frequently used to sell luxury products.

The perfume, a weird concoction of mainstream fragrances by Chanel, Dior, Calvin Klein and Gucci packaged in a 3D printed bottle, can be made on demand and purchased directly from the designer. The Tigran Avetisyan Spring/Summer 2015 collection is available at the SHOWstudio / MACHINE-A shop and Opening Ceremony.

Text: Anastasiia Fedorova