When it comes to fashion, we are always on the lookout for the next ‘it’ designer. From the streets of Paris to the runways of New York, fashion week is usually the place to start. Well, whether you’re in search of organza gowns or sharp streetwear garments, a new generation of designers are emerging out the depths of Istanbul Fashion Week, and they are on a mission to make their mark on the industry. Whatsmore, in an age in which social-political conversations are at the forefront of our minds, these designers are using the medium of fashion to champion issues of gender and women’s rights, making them pioneers among their peers. Check out our favourite designers from Istanbul Fashion Week and see what they have to say about their experience and the future of the industry below….

Sleek. Sexy. Sophisticated. Those are the words that can be used to describe Ceren Ocak’s designs. From phenomenal ribbed corsetry, which offers a celebration of the female form to striking suits complete with pleated asymmetrical hems – the Trabzon-born designer is offering us it all. After quitting a successful career at the swimwear brand Zeki Triko in 2013, the designer embarked on a mission to build a successful solo fashion brand – and I think we can all agree she made the right choice.

How does it feel being a part of Fashion Week Istanbul?
I’m very pleased and happy to be part of Istanbul Fashion Week. It’s very exciting that we found the opportunity to exhibit our work in the best way possible. On the other hand, although I miss the old days, being able to reach more people thanks to digital fashion shows makes me especially excited.

What is the future of fashion for you?
To be in this sector, this world should be your passion but the pandemic we are still going through has made humanity more sensitive towards nature. In order to reduce the consumption and therefore the damage to nature, I think we will turn to more timeless designs. And that sustainable fashion will continue to rise.

What excited you about Turkey’s exciting and buzzy fashion scene right now?
Interest in fashion and fashion weeks in Turkey is growing more and more every season. While there was only interest towards well know brands in the past, now the increasing interest in local designers excites me a lot.

Tulle and ruffles galore! Sudi Etuz’s work is what dreams are made of. With designer Şansım Adalı branding her designs as “street-couture”, it is clear that the avant-garde looks that lace her gender-fluid lines are geared towards the sophisticated city goer, looking to leave their mark. Organza dresses and textured blouses in bold hues accompany membrane-like structured tulle pieces that give us major Bimini Bom Boulash as an amoeba energy and we are obsessed.

How does it feel being a part of Fashion Week Istanbul?
It’s such an excitement. My first debut was at Fashion Week Istanbul in 2016. Since then I never missed a season and each season I tried to evolve my practice by adding different flavours such as VR shows, industrial design collaborations, local venue presentations. Now each season we try to present our local heritage as much as we try to showcase ourselves. Fashion weeks are also a creative unique platform to show what we do and how we do it to a global audience as it has really popular value.

What is the future of fashion for you?
The fashion and textile industry was struggling to carry out the entire process of design until it reaches the product. It’s the time of less material, less waste and a more smart way of human capacity. The only solution for this would be in the digital, and the pandemic suddenly confronted this reality with all of us. The preparation stages of the collection turned to 3D, the trial of fashion show installations with “mock-ups”, digital showrooms, and digital presentations. From all those points we are in 100% digital transformation. Our product samples are made in 3D now, we use more sustainable fabrics, trying to decrease carbon footprint, presenting all designs with a gender-fluid mind. We also launched our very first avatar character who is an astrologist: Sui-D. Now fashion is fed from much more different markets.

What excited you about Turkey’s exciting and buzzy fashion scene right now?
Fashion shows are interdisciplinary performances now. I’m super happy that Turkey is able to keep growing so fast in the digital fashion scene. Last season was a perfect start to bring the newest energies to the fashion industry. Now it doubled up with more digital contents of designers. We are glad to be a part of it. More eclectic shows, smart collections and presentations are the result of this unique opportunity that our landscape gives us.

If you are a streetwear fan, Niyazi Erdogan is the designer for you. The architecture graduate-turned-designer made his start by working on collections for the likes of Tommy Hilfiger. Now venturing out on his own, his brand sees v-neck sweaters join grand denim trench coats while pops of vibrant red and yellow explode out of a sea on denim shades offering the sharp yet quirky style synonymous with modern streetwear. And, as if his clothing wasn’t enough, the designer also acts as deputy chair of the Turkish Fashion Designers association – proving he really knows his stuff.

How does it feel being a part of Fashion Week Istanbul?
It is very exciting to be a part of Istanbul Fashion Week. It has a constantly changing and dynamic structure. It is a great pleasure to see many new names every season. During the years I have been being a participant, we have made great progress. It is an important door to the international fashion industry for us.

What is the future of fashion for you?
Fashion is my passion to catch the time. In the changing world order, fashion is evolving into a more independent, cross-border and digital. For me, adapting to this change supports my excitement and creativity.

What excited you about Turkey’s exciting and buzzy fashion scene right now?
It is a great advantage to be a designer in a country where production is so intense. Increasing digital sales channels support the growth of young designer brands. Emerging designers are exciting with their innovative ideas.

Shoulder pads reign supreme in Mehmet Emiroglu latest collection. The young designer offers stiffly exaggerated outerwear jackets that lace the collection, joined by higher than high-waisted pants and floor-sweeping evening gowns complete with cutouts. And our favourite look? It has to be the deep-blue two-piece tweed-meets-gingham set complete with electric blue leather gloves and a waist-sinching belt.

How does it feel being a part of Fashion Week Istanbul?
As a young designer, I am so proud to be part of this organization with the mentor designers of me for a long time. However, I don’t feel that we are together in the Fashion Week organisation, it is like we are celebrating to be together.

What is the future of fashion for you?
I have been thinking about this for a long time, but I like to stick to the idea that ‘fashion is for now’. Future is just bright in my mind but it is not possible to tell an exact idea for the future of fashion. It’s an unknown language, who knows the answer?

What excited you about Turkey’s exciting and buzzy fashion scene right now?
In developing countries, Fashion is a significant value all around the world. Especially, countries like us with strong histories. The one thing which is exciting me most is this background. It is completing me with my modern and future-forward ideas.

Yplus designer Yakup Biçer is here to tell you that outerwear is key when it comes to style. Drawing inspiration from his cultural roots, the experienced designer – who has been working the fashion circuit for around 30 years -emulates the strength and courage he sees in the ‘superheros’ around him and uses this to fuel his latest collection. When it comes to the clothes, rippling marble-esque patterns flow through quilted trench coats and black is seen as best when it comes to genderless pleated skirts and ballooned pants.

How does it feel being a part of Fashion Week Istanbul?
It is a nice feeling to be in the fashion week, it is exciting and intriguing.

What is the future of fashion for you?
Overall, fashion brings innovation and more creative processes. Creating sustainable fashion lies at the heart of the future of fashion.
Fashion is in a transition process towards simplicity, here we have to be creative and be sensitive to the world. How will we shape the future of fashion and where do we go from here is the most important question of our age. Now, there is an evolution: Enter an age of slowing down. Now it is the time to take an action instead of anger.

What excited you about Turkey’s exciting and buzzy fashion scene right now?
Fashion in Turkey is unlike other countries, young like a crawling baby, exciting and promising like everything new.

Rounding off our line up is menswear brand Hatice Gokce. Straying from the more stereotypical gendered pieces synonymous with menswear, throughout the brand’s bohemian offerings, lace shirts undergo a reinvention and linen is manipulated to serve us a collection that Harry Styles himself would be happy to wear. And for accessories? Ballet-flats reign supreme and yellow and blonde plaits act as replacements for scarves – we need these plait scarves in our life now. And, with the designer taking an active approach when it comes to championing women’s right, it is clear that a socio-political consciousness lies at the heart of his gender-bending designs.

How does it feel being a part of Fashion Week Istanbul?
I feel proud to be part of it. I have been participating since 2009 and I believe it is a very valuable platform to show the whole world about Turkish designer’s potential through their own language and approach.

What is the future of fashion for you?
We will high likely see a more exciting, more creative and a very seductive fashion world is waiting for us as the outbreak had transformed everybody to another state of mind. And 50% of all the shows and revealing of collections will probably online.
What excited you about Turkey’s exciting and buzzy fashion scene right now?
To be able to show our collections equally on the same platform excites me very much. And to hear that Turkey is becoming an exciting fashion platform that attracts the attention of all fashion lovers from all over the World. I am very happy.