Under The Radar: Turkish Designers You Should Know

From handmade jewelry to beachwear, hand-illustrated silk scarves to handmade terrariums, Istanbul’s designer scene is constantly growing. We picked out our favorite designers creating their own line of beautiful objects.

Rumisu

Sisters Pınar Yegin and Deniz Yegin İkiışık create surreal worlds on the surfaces of Rumisu silk scarves through their illustrative worlds. You’ll find spaceships taking off, safaris at their wildest peak, and Moby Dick’s whale coming up for air. With the silk sourced from Turkey and printed in Istanbul, the designer sisters also utilize handmade crochet charms with participants of a United Nations Development Project supporting female entrepreneurs in Southern Anatolia.

Envanter Heritage&Co

Der Liebling

Hamburg born designer Banu Kent befittingly chose a German name for her collection of gorgeous jewelry designs. Der Liebling serves up an ethnically inspired aesthetic, including pendants in the shape of stag horns, simple rings that respect the natural shape of their stones (tourmaline or opal), and hoop earrings inspired by Indian goddesses.

Bornn Enamelware

Another designer sister team, Bornn Enamelware was created by Öykü Thurston and Başak Onay, who produce unique tableware that uses natural and marbling techniques on porcelain surfaces. A contemporary approach to classic enamelware, you’ll find both basic dishes and cups with bold colors as well as darker-colored collections inspired by the drip painting technique.

5thposition

Model Ezgi Bozkurt and dancer Buse Uğur translated their daytime talents into 5thposition, a line of women’s swimwear that speaks of flowing forms and freedom of movement. Having sewn her own dance suits for years, Uğur’s inclination to create bathing suits was the natural next step. You’ll find sexy cuts in bold colors that are anything but usual.

NYKS

Designers Deniz Yurtkuran and Merve Tatari were inspired by nature when creating NYKS, their unique collection of organic candles in handcrafted copper holders. Made from olive oil from Adatepe, the candle fragrances are derived from plants obtained from all over Turkey and include mint, thyme, bay leaf, pine, lavender, cedar, bergamot, rosemary, and green mandarin. They’ve also recently begun to produce beautiful copper cocktail shakers, mirrors, and teakettles so make sure to follow their latest collections.

Müz

Another lover of nature, Gülriz Sansoy creates beautiful terrariums under the name Müz that are like little contained bits of wild nature, which urban dwellers have come to appreciate greatly. Within the geometric glass and metal objects, various succulents live alongside natural stones and sometimes even a mini animal sculpture.

Yuka Studio

Güliz Mustafaoğlu gave up her job as a set designer to focus on her true passion: beautiful geometric and asymmetric jewelry. Yuka Studio‘s unique creations include spherical earrings with lapis lazuli stones, gold-plated geometric rings with matching bracelets, and hand woven pendants (among many others).

Since you are here, we would like to share our vision for the future of travel - and the direction Culture Trip is moving in.

Culture Trip launched in 2011 with a simple yet passionate mission: to inspire people to go beyond their boundaries and experience what makes a place, its people and its culture special and meaningful — and this is still in our DNA today. We are proud that, for more than a decade, millions like you have trusted our award-winning recommendations by people who deeply understand what makes certain places and communities so special.

Increasingly we believe the world needs more meaningful, real-life connections between curious travellers keen to explore the world in a more responsible way. That is why we have intensively curated a collection of premium small-group trips as an invitation to meet and connect with new, like-minded people for once-in-a-lifetime experiences in three categories: Culture Trips, Rail Trips and Private Trips. Our Trips are suitable for both solo travelers, couples and friends who want to explore the world together.

Culture Trips are deeply immersive 5 to 16 days itineraries, that combine authentic local experiences, exciting activities and 4-5* accommodation to look forward to at the end of each day. Our Rail Trips are our most planet-friendly itineraries that invite you to take the scenic route, relax whilst getting under the skin of a destination. Our Private Trips are fully tailored itineraries, curated by our Travel Experts specifically for you, your friends or your family.

We know that many of you worry about the environmental impact of travel and are looking for ways of expanding horizons in ways that do minimal harm - and may even bring benefits. We are committed to go as far as possible in curating our trips with care for the planet. That is why all of our trips are flightless in destination, fully carbon offset - and we have ambitious plans to be net zero in the very near future.