about:blank was in the making for a few years before we finally opened it to the world in the way you see and know it now. At first there was the idea of opening a streetwear store, which seemed like something impossible. Of course, these days when we think of a streetwear store we instantly associate the idea of it with the likes of KITH NYC, Colette of Paris or something similar. I thought so too and didn’t do much about it till the day I was walking around the El Born District of Barcelona. In one of the narrow walkways a small skate-shop instantly caught my eye and a few moments later I was inside. 

It was really small, probably 10-15 square meters in total, with small collections of skateboards and the stuff that goes with it: tees, caps and other accessories. But the most important factor was that the guy behind the cash desk was the owner of the store himself. A guy, probably in his late thirties, who looks very passionate about skateboarding and its culture. I don’t exactly remember what we talked about back then but he passionately told me some cool stories about Mark Gonzalez and his brand Krooked. I went out of the store with a Krooked cap and the understanding that I don’t need a million dollar investment to start an authentic store.

The realization that a small store, mostly powered by passion, can exist, survive and influence people, gave me an opportunity to have a fresh look on my old idea/dream of starting a streetwear store. 

Back in Yerevan this idea kept popping up a lot more in my head and with time it developed and evolved in a way that I couldn’t just ignore or treat it like an unrealistic dream anymore.

At the end I didn’t do it all alone and shared my idea with my friend Aram whom I’ve known since school. We quite quickly understood that we are on the same page on this and got down to work. It wasn’t surprising at all to either of us that we were both more into the “art and design” side of the business rather than setting up a simple merchandising operation so creating a liquid brand which would allow us to float in between business and creativity was essential.

A couple of years later here we are at about:blank. 

While we care deeply about the visual and physical side of street fashion, we also didn’t want to limit ourselves to just doing simple merchandise sales. The streetwear ethos, after all, is all about a grassroots sense of expression, and that’s what we aim to encourage and develop here in our part of the world. 

We wanted to create and adopt a unique variable concept that will give us a lot of room to evolve and take on new directions and an increased scope. While our initial aim is to offer global streetwear and related products to a local audience, we are not shy about the possibility of that quickly growing to encompass something much larger and influential. It all starts with a blank page.

This applies to everything that may be varied - colours, styles, type, medium, etc. So please don’t be confused when you see something coming from about:blank in another shape, color or form.

 

 

And as we launch, grow and expand, we’d ultimately like to collaborate with brands and other individuals in various creative mediums. All the things we’ll do will always be connected through the central concept, and the spirit of collaboration will be present in all of them. We want to unite and connect, not segment and alienate. 

To be able to encompass all the aforementioned we needed a universal name which doesn’t put us in a box but instead gives the ability to experiment and try new things without limitations. The very basic idea behind about:blank is that both words are variables that are tied to the colon symbol (:). 

And what do variables do? They change, and as they do you get something different, yet part of the same formula. In the case of about:blank, they will take many different shapes and forms, all centered around the themes of street culture, lifestyle, art and music, both local and global.

During the next couple of weeks we are going to launch 2 of those “varied” projects. Both are related to music and we will tell more details about them in upcoming blog posts but you may have already guessed what they might be about from the graphic of this post. :)