Bora Aksu who tells he caught the milestone of his life with the hit graduation fashion show he made after his education taken at Central Saint Martins in London and the master degree he did, expresses his success with the words “Skill and working are important but the effect of being in the right place at the right time is great”. According to Aksu, being a designer is a life of style of itself and design “is necessary and indispensable as much as breathe” with his own words.
Successful designer Bora Aksu of whom we took his opinion on Turkish fashion, shared his profession as being a fashion designer and his advices for the young people who want to be fashion designers as well as his evaluations on Turkish fashion sector with our publication group.
How do you define fashion designing? You express yourself what kind of a designer?
Being a designer is a life of style of itself. Because, design is necessary and indispensable as much as breathe for me. Forming of my designer identity happened during my university and master education taken in Central Martins in London and awards and sponsorships I took after those educations. Skill and working is of course important but being the right place at the right time has great importance as well. And for me, master’s degree that I did in Central Saint Martins where my skill shaped became one of the points changed my life. Positive reactions I got during the graduation fashion show became the start of my career.
As each of my day have been shaped according to the projects and tasks belonging to that period, actually, my one day isn’t same the other one. No matter how intense the work belonging to that day is, making the beloved work of the person is completely changing the responsibility of the work. For me, design is the reflection of my feelings and the mode I have within that time. Therefore, it is always possible to mention an ever-changing design travel and so the changing days. I think success is coming when you make the work you love instead of being your work. While talking about the beefing up the personal fashion, I discover new ways that I can express myself each season as being a piece of this trend. Laces; handicrafts, hand work embroidery and needlework. Reflection of these to the collections in some way, reflecting these hand work objects to the fashion shows in a modern way at every turn and keeping up to date is a piece of my design language…
For you, how is fashion perceived in Turkey?
In recent years, there has been an incredible awareness for fashion in Turkey. It is especially possible to see this on the new generation. But some steps must be taken for general perception of fashion industry.
What kind of differences did you see when you went to England on the fashion concept in Turkey and there?
It is wrong to compare London and Istanbul in the meaning of their places at fashion platform. London is a well-accepted city with its lasting fashion weeks for years and active fashion industry. British Fashion Council which composes the main frame of British fashion week has an important position at international platform with its operation and its own system. When saying London Fashion Week, industry knows to see new opinion without any trend and meet with new talents.
For you, how can Turkish fashion reach to a leading position in the world?
Of course, Istanbul has a fast growing fashion week but for Istanbul to turn into a city that can dominate fashion, first of all, an era which individuality notion reflects on design. Up to me, especially increasing of individual designer number and giving support to these designers are two of the important effects…
Of course, just giving support isn’t enough. At the same time, it needs to create a market in which the products of these designers will be accepted.
“There are Big Changes Between 20 Years Before and Today”
What has changed from past to today in Turkey at fashion field?
I have been in London for 20 years and when compared 20 years before with today, I see obvious changes and differences. 20 years before, there weren’t differences for the notions such as fashion designer, stylists etc. But now, the professions within fashion designing and fashion platform are among the most crowded professions for youth. In addition to this, university numbers which was giving fashion study was little and they were giving education at textile design field rather than fashion design. And now, lots of institutions and universities are giving fashion design education. There are really big changes.
What does make you inspire during the creation process of your collections?
My inspiration sources are back to my childhood in any way. Designing is such thing that, there is always a transformation you have, feed and then you filter. For me, it doesn’t have a start and an end, there is just pause by freezing during the collections periods and then continuation. Being a designer isn’t a work that you can quit it when you are done. Being a designer means that you have it 7 days of the week and 24 hours a day with your whole identity. Therefore, the most important thing is love. You add to your designs such strong touches with your love that, everyone who contact with that design can feel it.
What are the most common accessories you use in your collections?
They change according to the season of course but as I think accessories are the elements completing designs, I use them much. Shoes, bags, socks and hair ornaments are the accessories I use much more.
“Designing Must be Flowing into Your Veins Anytime”
What do you recommend for the young people who want to make career at fashion designing field?
The first thing I ask to the students I meet become how much they love the work they do. This is valid not only design but also any kind of profession. With this, education is surely important because learning a work from A to Z and being enough technically are the most important factors for one to find his/ her designer identity… This is not a kind of thing you can do from 9 am to 5pm. It must be flowing into your veins anytime and you must think and produce anytime. Also, it is important for them to know that fashion needs a deep thinking, preparation, technical knowledge and continuous visual feeding. I believe that students need to elude the understanding of ‘I cannot do that’ and they reach a dimension to make anything and when reaching this dimension, they need to have fun and learn during all of the steps. Actually, the important thing is to know that fashion is not just limited with fashion shows and this has a deep kitchen. If students enjoy in the kitchen, I think this is an awesome success…
