Students’ fashion exhibition connecting past, present

ISTANBUL - Hürriyet Daily News

The exhibition displays a collection of garments from different Anatolian regions.

The Museum of Turkish and Islamic Works and Arts is hosting an extraordinary exhibition by 10 students of Istanbul Bilgi University’s Fashion Design Department. The students collaborated with the granddaughter of the late Belkis Sevengil in an applied laboratory study to revive Sevengil’s collection of garments from different regions in Anatolia in the early years of the Turkish republic.

The students prepared their own collection inspired by Sevengil’s archive study, adapting it to today’s trends. Their collection is being displayed with Sevengil’s original collection. The exhibition, titled “Learning from the Past,” opened March 6 and continues through March 18.

The Museum of Turkish and Islamic Works and Arts is in the Pargalı Damat İbrahim Paşa Palace in the historical Sultanahmet neighborhood.

Aiming to display the fashion taste of Turkish women, the exhibition brings together a total of 80 handmade, embroidered silk and atlas pieces, all bearing the marks of the years that have passed by.

Once a teacher

As a teacher at girls’ vocational schools, Sevengil traveled through Anatolia during her professional career and worked in many different provinces. The collection on display today is the result of a collection she compiled back then. Her granddaughter Nesteren Davutoğlu discovered her grandmother’s collection and opened it to the reinterpretation of Bilgi University students.

The exhibition is a very successful attempt to modernize the handmade garments of the early decades of the 20th century.