24 year old designer Eysan Guney’s graduate collection The Joy of Getting Away With It is an ode to her muses. Her work explores her relationship with Istanbul and what the city means to her; the collection asks the question “who would Istanbul be if it was a person?” The collection captures and evokes the feelings she associates with different parts of the city, and her fantasies about it.
The main inspirations for this project are the hyper-feminine characters of 90’s Turkish Film Noir, women who cannot be tamed or controlled, Guney believes that Istanbul could be personified as these women; never to be owned or submitted.
Based on this idea, Guney draws inspiration from the rundown landscapes of the city; broken, incomplete and forgotten but still resisting. Similarly to the Turkish Femme Fatale who in adversity finds strength by using her sexuality in an antagonistic manner.
The juxtaposition of fragile looking, lingerie inspired details and broken, fragmented layers combined with strong minimalistic cuts and contemporary tailoring details, The Joy of Getting Away With It conveys Guney’s interpretation of femininity tempered by an industrial aesthetic.
The collection utilises traditional womenswear fabrics such as satin and organza off-cuts sourced from Istanbul’s street markets alongside technical fabrics used in unpredictable manners such as floor-length dresses and tailored pieces. The collection further makes use of various coating methods such as DIY printing which include examples of Guney’s photographic studies of Istanbul and fragments of poetry as well as a specialised rubber coating method.
Eysan Guney’s debut collection is a tribute to women of Istanbul and a celebration of provocative sexuality as political resistance.
