Word: istanbul
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Dates: during 2000-2009
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...absolutely taken aback. I would have expected it in America or Hong Kong, not Istanbul," Burke says. "We don't have anything like it in London, Paris or Milan." Yet it is fitting that what is bound to become the prototype for a new era of shopping malls should be in the city that invented the concept. After all, the Grand Bazaar, the world's first covered market, has been trading since before Columbus landed in the Americas and contains some 4,000 shops, banks, cafés, a police station and a post office...
...have to admit I was expecting a mystical city where my fiancé might have to cover up," says Brian Handley, the general manager of Harvey Nichols, who moved to Istanbul from Britain five months ago. "but the nightlife is incredible, and there's such a desire for fashion. They really push the boundaries and know all the Western brands. There's so much wealth, yet this is seriously undersaturated as a market...
Hussein Chalayan, a Londoner of Turkish-Cypriot descent with strong cultural ties to Istanbul, often finds assumptions about the city to be wide of the mark. "It's the New York not only of Turkey but of the region," he says. "Being next to water is liberating and makes it liberal?gay and lesbian scene and all. It's a cultural soup where one minute you could feel like you are in Paris, the next Cairo, then Moscow...
Originally from the capital city of Ankara, Kocabiyikoglu and her boyfriend had been living in London but chose to return to Turkey because, she says, "I felt it was pointless to be Turkish if I was going to miss out on Istanbul again becoming a city of the world. Many things are beginning here, whereas in London it is all very developed." Her dream is to open a fashion boutique with her sister Basak, who is currently an assistant buyer at the London specialty store Browns...
...Istanbul is definitely undersold," says Ozlem Onal, 37, whose family business is hotels and who has worked as the night manager at the Mercer in New York City. "American bankers are coming here. They see all the ingredients: the clubs are full every night, we have a lot of stamina, we're anxious to pack in the world of fashion, technology, entertainment, movies. First-time visitors can't imagine how European we are, although I go to Asia every day. My gym is in Asia, so I take the boat...