Blurring the Borders: Inside Istanbul Fashion Week

Upon arriving in the bustling city – home to 15 million people – you may be struck by the conservative dress code. Inside the show space for Mercedes-Benz Istanbul Fashion Week a decidedly different narrative was being told: a colourful odyssey to reflect the city’s vibrant youthfulness. Emulating Turkey’s fractious political and economic climate, there was less emphasis on singular trends taking over the scene, but rather fierce declarations of individual expression, from elevated streetwear to high-wattage 80s glamour.

“There is a lot of support for the young designers here [in Turkey],” Raf Stesmans tells HUNGER backstage at New Gen by IMA. “My job is really to really focus their identity and focus on what they have inside.” The Creative Director & Fashion Design Lecturer at Istanbul Moda Academy adds, “our show gets more and more attention every year. You will see 12 completely different looks here I think, though there is always a real emphasis on handcrafting in Turkey.

“I hope it will continue like this, I love to be here.” The evolution from textile to experimental design is something that is finding pace here as well. Raf says, “In Turkey, they’re really focused on production so you can try out a digital print and in a few hours it’s ready.”

The young creatives shaping Instabul’s fashion scene right now, including Brand Who, Tuba Ergin, Sebnem Günay and Mel Özbek, are less concerned with creating designs through a Turkish lens, but rather using a global sartorial language to push their vision.

The founders of Brand Who, Volkan Güzelce and Koray Arıcı, who revealed their sports-luxe collection, entitled ‘Sunseekers’ told us after the show: “We have our own unique language in Turkey [but] we are trying to put something else on from the international world. As a country, streetwear is not really strong – but we’re coming up. We need time.”

“There’s a real freedom in the collection,” Güzelce adds. “We love to push our limits and that’s why we’re trying new cuts, new patterns.”

Now in its fifth year, MBIFW talent incubators like the International Designer Exchange Programme (IDEP) by Mercedes-Benz is in place to support fresh fashion graduates in the early stages of career-building in other international markets. For spring / summer 2019, rising Georgian-born designer Ani Datukishvilli, who studied at Central Saint Martins, was asked to present her 60s-inspired collection for the first time in Istanbul. “I’m from Tiblisi in Georgia – it’s a small country and there are a lot of emerging designers there,” she says. “It’s really exciting to show here and to try and get my work seen by other audiences.”

Femme fatales, crafty-cool skater girls and sixties socialites – these up-and-coming designers are paving the way for a brighter future…