Festivals and events

“Effervescent” (bubbly, lively, exhilarated) is the word that springs to mind when talking about the state of fashion in Turkey. With international media spotlight on Istanbul as European Capital of Culture 2010 Turkish fashion is riding high getting ready for the third edition of Istanbul Fashion week set to take place August 25-28, 2010 together with the first edition of Collection Premiere Istanbul, a trade fair that will showcase Turkish as well as foreign brands eyeing the region for expansion.

Building up to the excitement of the eagerly anticipated fashion week in August, a host of other fashion events and festivals take over Istanbul keeping fashionistas and cool hunters buzzing:

• Galata Moda and Bebek Festival where Turkish fashion rules;
• Akmerkez Fashion Air, a shopping centre showcase of 35 young local designers;
• Young designers pop up store at Blender, local equivalent of Colette, a paragon of cool.
• Modazon. com the first Turkish online show portal that features a new designer every month shot and styled by different crews;
• Growing ranks of bloggers, according to L’Appart PR, about 30 in total;
• edgy publications like XOXO magazine distributed for free rivalling newly launched Vogue on the coolness factor;
• new fashion boutiques online, check markafoni.com and trendyol.com;
• launch of Esmod Istanbul, the world’s oldest fashion design school

Drawn by the official Istanbul “cool” status the British cultural agency Liberatum organised Istancool festival in June 2010. The likes of Hanif Kureishi, Philip Treacy and Zaha Hadid, Jafferson Hack and Daphne Guiness converged to Istanbul to mix and mingle with the “fine fleur” of the Turkish fashion and design world festivals’ motto being Paying tribute to Istanbul’s cultural heritage and celebrating its creative future.