Diversity is still a big issue in the fashion industry. But it is not just measured by whether campaigns and catwalks feature models who are not just light-skinned, thin and young. It is also about cultural diversity in fashion. In this country, there is a large group with which we could celebrate this: almost three million people of Turkish origin live in Germany. Nevertheless, they are still not very visible in the fashion sector.
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Models with Turkish roots are rare in German magazines and advertising campaigns
The process of adequately depicting different realities of life in brands and magazines is only taking place slowly. In 2022, for example, the German “Vogue” produced a photo series in which the magazine presented seven women who made the Bundestag more diverse, including the CDU politician Serap Güler, whose parents came to Germany from Turkey as guest workers. Güler grew up in Marl in the Ruhr area and was State Secretary for Integration in the Ministry for Children, Families, Refugees and Integration in North Rhine-Westphalia from 2017 to 2021.
Models with Turkish roots are rare in German magazines and advertising campaigns. With one exception: the model Hilal Ata. She grew up in Großniedesheim in Rhineland-Palatinate; her parents come from a small Turkish village. Hilal Ata works successfully internationally and has posed for photo series in the Arabic and Greek “Vogue” and the Croatian “Elle”. She has also been the face of many German fashion campaigns, for example for the Schumacher brand by Mannheim designer Dorothee Schumacher.
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Good in business: Hilal Ata is currently the most famous German-Turkish model.
Source: IMAGO/Avalon.red
What is it like behind the scenes at photo shoots? How many people with Turkish roots study fashion design, want to become stylists or work in marketing? At the Fashion Design Institute in Düsseldorf, the proportion of students with Turkish roots is a constant 15 percent, says Harald Thomas from the fashion school. The only thing that counts in teaching is fashion and that the training is international. And: “Acceptance of others is something that awakens and promotes the creativity of the individual. Everyone can work freely with us and go in any direction they like. Whether traditional, ready-to-wear or haute couture – everything is possible. The only thing that counts is that the designer in question works highly professionally and knows exactly who he is doing what for.”
One of the most famous graduates of the Fashion Design Institute is the German-Turkish designer Seyit Ares, who was born in Leverkusen and lived in Berlin and Turkey. The 32-year-old has made a name for himself with extravagant collections that he has shown in both Istanbul and Paris. This year, Seyit Ares opened a concept store in Düsseldorf. He has a number of international fans, including American singers such as Gwen Stefani and Lady Gaga, who wear his creations.
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The Berlin label GmbH, which was founded in 2016 by the Norwegian-Pakistani designer Benjamin Alexander Huseby and Serhat Isik, has also achieved worldwide fame. Isik grew up in Herne as the child of Turkish parents and studied fashion at the Berlin-Weißensee Art Academy. The duo, who were represented at Berlin Fashion Week in early July, have already worked for the Italian luxury brand Trussardi and have also dressed stars such as Dua Lipa, Rihanna and Kylie Jenner in tailor-made outfits.
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One of the most established German-Turkish fashion designers is Ayzit Bostan, who was born in Turkey and came to Germany at the age of four. The designer has been releasing an annual fashion collection of the same name since 1995. Her studio is now in Munich, where she creates clothing, shoes, jewelry and accessories. She is also a professor of product design at the Kassel Art Academy.
Inclusive fashion for people of short stature
The Austrian-Turkish designer Atil Kutoglu, who grew up in Istanbul, is also very successful and first showed his avant-garde collections in Vienna in 1991, later at the fashion weeks in Paris and New York. Celebrities such as the actress Dagmar Koller and the TV presenter Arabella Kiesbauer wear his label. His designs are characterized by Ottoman forms and colors combined with western design; he uses fabrics from Turkey as well as Vorarlberg lace.
Diversity is the theme of Berlin designer Sema Gedik, who designs fashion for people of short stature with the label Auf Augenhöhe. Sema Gedik is the daughter of Turkish guest workers. While shopping with her short cousin, she discovered that it was very difficult for her to find suitable clothes, as Gedik reported in an interview. She researched and found out that there are around 100,000 people of short stature living in Germany alone. The then fashion student began designing fashion for all people who are otherwise forgotten by the clothing industry with the Auf Augenhöhe project. This makes her one of the few designers in the world who works with inclusive fashion. No one is excluded at the fashion label Auf Augenhöhe: The online shop has Everybody T-shirts that fit people of all sizes.
