Istanbul Fashion Week/SS 2012 - Day 3

Fashion week is no playground, that's for sure. My feet are killing me, I'm aching all over. You see everyone dressed up and nice in the mornings then when the day's a wrap no one knows what drove over them.

Oh, well, enough about my agony. The 3rd day was the longest and most tiring of all that started at 13.00 and ended with the Elaidi show at Spoil at 21.30.

Mix 2: Seda Zoroglu, Safak Tokur, Cigdem Akin

Seda Zoroglu's show started off with a percussion band and ended with them. The collection, almost all of which were jeans, was a bit Diesel like. Leather details on raw textures, paisley printed jeans, girdle tops matched with metal chain accessories. The key piece was a jean jacket which looked like a leather motorcycle jacket.

The jean gown was also an eye catcher, but still it was not a Fashion Week ready collection.

It is hard to say the same for Safak Tokur. His work was way too good for a mixed show. The collection referencing the whirling dervishes had cliché pieces like a long, white skirt, but also interesting details like cuffs on unexpected places, leather socks, unordinary sandals.

The headless model could not stir many talks since we've seen it at Victor&Rolf and Maison Martin Margiela before, but it was still a good idea considering its purpose of conveying the message of the concept.

Mix 2's 3.star Cigdem Akin used origami, which we'll see a lot of in Summer 2012. The fabrics looked like paper as well. Her cuts were extremely slim as usual and so her models were picked accordingly. Although it looked like the key piece was the vest suit with the long tail, I would prefer the sequined gown.

It was no surprise that Özgür Masur would attract many celebrities since he sponsors many TV series. Thus the press had to sit at the back rows, although there weren't very many people, maybe he preferred it that way. Oh, well.

The show started with a video of Zuhal Olcay, a famous Turkish singer/actress, singing.

Sedef Avcı opened the walk followed by Ahu Yagtu. Body-con white minis with panel and pleat details, Goddess gowns with small versions of Masur's signature gatherings were ordinary. Just like in many other shows we saw lots of white, back exposure, cuts here and there and deep V both front and back. Then there were his golds. First as patterns of Ebru on shirts, which was very Istanbul, then as mini skirt versions. The gold minis came to life with a weaving effect.

Still, my favorite was a sequined transparent dress, which didn't look like it belonged to the collection.

Hatice Gokce was my favorite of all the shows. It was all white, except for some light blues, leaving us idiot proof that white will be the color of SS 2012. Perfect cuts, perfect tailoring, Swarovski elements on collars and seams, geometrical folds, which remind origami, did good to our eyes after all those shows. Hatice Gokce's concept was Gilmans, young men, who are supposed to be gifts of Heaven to women, but the show made me think of white crows with all the triangular foldings, which looked like a crow's beak.

Gul Agis' show was held at the famous Galatasaray Hammam, which was original, however bad for the designer, since most people either couldn't stay or left even before she came out.

Alexander McQueen SS 2009, Style.com

Styling was perfect. Especially, the hair, which looked like just washed and stuck on the models' faces. You would think it looked cliché or kitsch, but I thought it was just right. We did see it a the Alexander McQueen 2009 SS show, but since the two resemble two different concepts it is not necessarily copy-paste.

As for the designs, it was mostly black and "of course" gold. We saw lots of chiffon here as well, locking it to be another strong trend in SS2012.

As we left the Hammam, we headed for the Consulate of Netherlands for the Ozlem Suer show. Great garden, beautiful people, cool atmosphere and Sangria! The show was held in one of the rooms, which was very small, thus the video is not perfect, and I couldn't wait until the very end, sorry...

But considering the Marie Antoinettes Suer created the location couldn't be better. She kept her fairy tale style with Victorian designs but modernized them using jean as fabric. Hair and makeup was all baby doll like, very M.Antoinette again!

adL by Cengiz Abazoglu was probably the most crowded show. It was a gown collection. Lots of chiffon, Goddess gowns with one shoulder and drapes worn with gold accessories. There was lots of shimmer in this collection as well, though not very "out there".

Podyumda gördüklerimiz Çağla Şikel, Özge Ulusoy ve Tülin Şahin'ken, ön sırada Deniz Akkaya ve Nur Yerlitaş'ı gördük.

Here is the only show I cannot comment on: Elaidi. The show held at Spoil was so crowded and the place so small, I couldn't see anything. Thus, don't feel comfortable writing anything about it. Here are two very bad videos I managed to take.