Heritage and innovation can intertwine to create a sustainable and vibrant tomorrow.
As part of my series about “individuals and organizations making an important social impact”, I had the pleasure of interviewing Mareta Gevorkyan, Maison Marom.
Mareta Gevorkyan is an Armenian entrepreneur and philanthropist dedicated to connecting cultural heritage with modern development. Her work spans territorial development, education, and design-driven brands, each rooted in clarity, responsibility, and a deep sense of place. Through Maison Marom and her foundations, she creates platforms that nurture talent, elevate identity, and invest in Armenia’s future.
Thank you so much for joining us in this interview series! Can you tell us a story about what brought you to this specific career path?
My journey in the fashion industry began as an answer to a question that has guided much of my working life. I have always pondered how business can be a force for cultural continuity. I’ve always thought that thoughtful, purposeful commerce can be a tool for safeguarding identity and making heritage have a persistent presence.
Launching Maison Marom in 2024 was a natural step towards that direction. It remains an avenue for turning business into a piece of cultural heritage. I understood that our creative potential would perish without being channeled in a modern way, and I wanted to create something that could cast Armenia’s cultural voice into the international arena with integrity and credibility.
This was the right kind of fashion language. With Rien-à-Porter, Armenia’s first luxury concept-based destination, we elevated Armenian designers to the same plane as international players. French savoir-faire blends with Armenian storytelling with the Maróm Label, which is Paris-based. I also relish independent collaborations with creators that share the same values. For example, MOMENT OF WHITE offers new wedding fashion through modernity and Armenian essence.
For me, it’s never just about fashion. It’s about showing that culture and innovation are not opposed to one another but can, instead, fuel each other. This combination can create a future where culture isn’t preserved but lived.
Can you share the most interesting story that happened to you since you began leading your company or organization?
The greatest satisfaction of the process, from the day Maison Marom was born, has been to see a guiding concept, in this case “making business a cultural heritage”, take shape. It’s wonderful to see Maison Marom occupying spaces that redefine Armenia’s role in the creative world.
We at Rien-à-Porter showcase Armenian creatives alongside international designers. Simple model, but one that speaks quietly in terms of equity. Armenian creativity is acknowledged and appreciated on a level footing.
And in Paris, with the Maróm Label, we’ve managed to marry Armenian authenticity with French elegance. Armenian working artisans and French fashion designers are joining hands to produce collections that suspend culture in craft, not decoration.
They’re all components of a living system. All together, they represent an unremitting dialogue among heritage, fashion, and commerce. It’s a dialogue that yields a rooted but forward-thinking cultural presence.
It has been said that our mistakes can be our greatest teachers. Can you share a story about the funniest mistake you made when you were first starting? Can you tell us what lesson you learned from that?
One of the best things that I’ve realized is that creativity and structure should go hand in hand. Some may believe that structure can suffocate creativity, but I’ve come to understand that it’s what keeps it going.
In creative endeavors, ideas simply come together so beautifully, but they can also be fleeting. Without routine and discipline, even the most revolutionary endeavors can parch or be misplaced. Some time ago, I understood that establishing strict processes, responsibility, and a proper operation tempo does not stifle creative freedom. Systems create space for creativity to flourish.
Across our fashion endeavors, we allow space for creativity, but we must have structure. This is not to crush creativity, but to safeguard the art. In organizations where velocity is required, such as in fashion, that consistency translates to authenticity and reliability. Structure, well designed, is what makes creativity have a lasting cultural legacy.
My greatest lesson has been that creativity needs a sanctuary in structure.
Creative energy can be capricious. It may come and go depending on mood, inspiration, and situation. I realized that firm functional bases allow the energy to form and take on form. Ideas remain ideas without structure. With structure, they become movements.
Since our creative community expanded, I realized that good progress requires professionalization and creativity. Good communications, punctuality, and respectful leadership enable the artists and the designers to do their best.
Business to me is a cultural platform. It’s ethical, rhythmic, and allows for creative expression to emerge in a tenacious manner. That’s why we continue to invest in education and team building. We aim to establish a foundation that can sustain artistry and endurance.
Can you describe how you or your organization is making a significant social impact?
My practice applies business, fashion, and design as means of cultural stewardship. In taking Armenian designers to parity levels with global brands, I provide legitimacy and credibility to our creative constituency via Rien-à-Porter.
Maison Marom allows us to rethink Armenian heritage on our own terms, bridging French design with Armenian craft to refigure tradition. Not to replace it, but make it be in the now.
Maison Marom’s Hosq Foundation drives a lot of that work. It is a dynamic platform for creative industries growth in Armenia.
Each project is part of a huge ecosystem in which business is cultural stewardship and empowerment. It is a blueprint for how creativity can fuel sustainable development and hope in the country.
Can you tell us a story about a particular individual who was impacted or helped by your cause?
Through Rien-à-Porter, we feel fortunate to support a new generation of Armenian fashion designers.
Names like Hayk Ananyan, Narek Jhangirian, Varduhi Torozyan, Nelly Tadevosyan, Liana Tashchyan, and Nensi Avetisian are among the local creatives featured alongside international designers. We are grateful that we can spotlight such outstanding local talent.
Are there three things the community/society/politicians can do to help you address the root of the problem you are trying to solve?
My duty is to preserve the cultural identity of Armenia — not nostalgia, but as a constructive force in the world now. To make that mandate real, I believe that we require three things:
Support for Creative Industries
We must recognize the creative economy for its contribution. It must be easy for local designers, simplifying exports, and facilitating cultural exchange will make Armenian creatives part of global networks.
Change in Cultural Perception
We need to infuse respectability to service and creative professions. If we hold on to these options in high esteem, then young people will begin to regard them as actual, practical vocations. This will strengthen our economic and cultural pillars.
Global Cooperation
Armenia’s diaspora is rich in potential. Our broader community offers knowledge, mentorship, and connectivity. By connecting that know-how to action on the ground, we can build the kind of long-term capacity that will allow Armenia’s creative industries to develop solidly and sustainably.
How do you define “Leadership”? Can you explain what you mean or give an example?
I define leadership as the ability to set a clear, purposeful vision and then empower others to bring that vision to life. For me, leadership means moving with transparency, calm, and cultural responsibility, especially in challenging moments.
For example, when I work, I focus on being clear about my intentions and then trust my team to execute with integrity. I provide the vision, step back, and let talented people build the future. That balance of clarity, empowerment, and trust is what leadership means to me.
What are your “5 things I wish someone told me when I first started” and why? Please share a story or example for each.
- Formalize Cultural Preservation: Cultural philanthropy has to be planned. Long term collaborations, such as those forged by the Hosq Foundation, yield the strongest results. We have been re-thinking cultural venues, transforming locations into creative laboratories.
- Use Business to Enact Cultural Parity: Representation must be structural. In Rien-à-Porter, there is an equal policy of Armenian and foreign designers, equally treated and rooting the position of local talent.
- Import External Expertise: To lead Armenia’s design community onto the world stage, we had to go beyond borders in order to work. Working with French designers for The Maróm Label translated into collections that were refined yet not stereotypical — with local sense and international awareness.
- Define Your Global Narrative: Before Maison Marom’s opening, we created a solid international identity grounded in Armenia yet embraced by the world. Opening in France helped build cultural legitimacy and positioned Armenia as a provider, and not a consumer, to global fashion.
- Lead with Vision, Not Dictation: Leadership is a quiet and long-term affair. I chart the course and I get the conditions right, but I let my teams do it. For example, with the revitalisation of the Afrikyan Building, I am fortunate to be able to rely on the outstanding expertise of my teams. I can provide the overall vision and I am fortunate enough to have teams in place that can execute that vision flawlessly.
Can you please give us your favorite “Life Lesson Quote”? Can you share how that was relevant to you in your life?
I don’t have inspirational quotes that I live by, but I do have guiding principles. One of them is:
“Heritage and innovation can intertwine to create a sustainable and vibrant tomorrow.”
It establishes the manner in which I view the relationship of business and culture as not competitors, but partners. All that I do, from Maison Marom to restoration of buildings, I do with the goal of honoring that which is and allowing it to evolve with fresh relevance.
Another of my rules is: “Giving is the way of living.”
Having collaborated with the Keron Development Foundation, I have discovered what giving — not charity, but empowerment, has the power to do in bringing people together as a community. It is a question of helping individuals develop their own capacity, dignity in potential, and continuity in care.
Is there a person in the world, or in the US with whom you would like to have a private breakfast or lunch with, and why? He or she might just see this, especially if we tag them. 🙂
I would invite Maya Plisetskaya, the legendary prima ballerina of the Bolshoi Ballet. Her artistry, discipline, and defiance of limits have always inspired me. Plisetskaya’s career shows how creative expression can become a form of cultural diplomacy, shaping identity far beyond the stage.
I would be honored to discuss with her how the arts can influence society, how beauty and technique together create lasting cultural memory, and how creative excellence can become a powerful force for human development. Her life’s work embodies the idea that culture, when pursued with passion and integrity, can be a legacy that outlives any individual performance.
You are a person of enormous influence. If you could inspire a movement that would bring the most amount of good to the most amount of people, what would that be? You never know what your idea can trigger. 🙂
If I could contribute to a movement, it would be to one establishing the pillars of human and cultural success. I would like to think of this as the Cultural Prosperity Movement. It would not be a campaign, but a subtle change in how we build.
How can our readers further follow your work online?
https://maisonmarom.com and https://www.instagram.com/mareta_gevorkyan/
This was very meaningful, thank you so much. We wish you only continued success in your great work!
Social Impact Heroes: Why & How Mareta Gevorkyan Of Maison Marom Is Helping To Change Our World was originally published in Authority Magazine on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.