Istanbul Bridges a gap with its Fashion Days

Istanbul, August 27, 2009 /FR/ -  Istanbul Fashion Days has opened last night with Koza, a youg fashion designers’ contest, which has existed for some years now and has changed its name to a new one on the occasion of Istanbul Fashion Days, happening for the first time in Turkey’s major city. The event is now the first in the chronology of the fashion calendar worldwide as it is presenting -until august 30- the Spring 2010 collections on the runway, before Barcelona, New York, London, Milan and Paris will next month.

After an opening party held in the gardens of a University building, hosting many national and international guests, the first runway show gathered 24 Turkish designers, 16 of them participating in textile ready-to-wear contest, and 8 of them in the leather fashion design competition. Remember the names of the winners, as they could become bigger in years to come:

- Pelin Isildak won the First Prize in the category of textile ready-to-wear witha wonderful trench coat in white organza.

- Mustafa Aydin won the second prize in the same category with a combination tuxedo piece.

- Sulsem Simsek Yalcin was inspired by Pandora in her theme and won the third prize .

- Gonca Hatipoglu won the first prize in the leather category with a look displaying a bolero in carved silver leather.

- With a black look, designed on the lines of Gareth Pugh for the pants and Giles Deacon for the fur-sleeved jacket, Ece Akhravi Matin won the second prize in the leather category.

A fairly good level of creativity for all these designers in the final -born between 1979 and 1989- witnesses the good vibes of the city  which is thriving to become a major fashion capital at international level.

These elements were stressed this morning by Tafer Caglayan, Turkish Minister of State for Foreign Economy, during a press conference, gathering journalists from France, various E.U. countries and Canada, together with reprensentants of ITKIB ( Istanbul Textile & Apparel Exporters’ Association), the event’s main organizer. “The Turkish population counts 71.5 million people, and the average age in the population is no more than 28.” Among other figures, the Minister of State stressed how Turkish economy had expanded these last years. It is now ranking at the 15^th position among world exporting countries, and at the 8^th position as a tourist destination.” Hikmet Tanriverdi, Chairman of ITKIB, has expressed later that, by 2023, when Turkey will be celebrating the centenial of its republic, “Istanbul aims to rank among the five tops fashion capitals of the world”. An effort which should reach destinations at a wider scale than the European Union, which the Turkish Republic demands to integrate.

“82% of our textile exportations are currently going to E.U. countries, and the integration would make sense, indeed,” added Mr. Tafer Caglayan. The Minister of State also made it clear that Istanbul could be reached from 54 different countries after 4 hours of flight or less, making textile companies based in and around Istanbul, excellent business partners, able to deliver orders to many destinations in a quite short time. Tafer Caglayan, speaking in the name of the Turkish government as a whole, has also asserted: “We wil be supporting the sector of textile to the end.” Turkey could thus prove, like the Bosphorus, an excellent corridor between the East and the West, but not only. It also has an interesting position on the map between the North and the South, and could play a major part in this new direction.

The city bridging two continents, Europe and Asia, could then also become a symbol in world fashion… A goal to pursue at a time when acting global has become increasingly trendy.

Jean Paul Cauvin