In the 13 years since Natalia Alaverdian founded A.W.A.K.E. Mode, she has built it from the ground up—“on my knees,” as she put it during a showroom preview of her spring collection. The brand’s success has been such that, in summer 2025, she sold a majority stake to an outside investor, a timing that more or less coincided with designing the lineup she showed in Paris this week.
Alaverdian described this outing as “a little bit ’70s, a little bit rock-bandy,” a vibe that was evident in the way-out-there denim flares, in a medium wash or a light one studded with silver rivets, and oodles of house favorites, like her disc skirts—now in tie-overs and neon brights or a negative-space iteration on wide, twisted “tagliatelle” panels.
Spring also found the designer rocking out on fringe, knotted and otherwise, to beguiling effect on sailor tops, dresses and asymmetrical blouses. Turning jeans back to front and shirt cuffs into ankle hems on harem pants are some of her classic punchlines; here those were joined by a few mashups—like Prince of Wales check and leopard and knotted fringe all at once on look 18—which the designer described as “aliens wearing vintage.” Macramé got a plotline all its own, as did theatrical fringed numbers that somehow looked both kooky and (mostly) wearable.
By turns familiar and fun, this lineup had all the sass, style, inside jokes and OTT proportions fans have come to expect from the brand—in a kind of Easter egg moment, the designer herself did a few turns here, guitar in hand. That’s the kind of bootstrapping A.W.A.K.E has always stood for, and it makes you wonder what Alaverdian might have up her sleeve next.
