of Our Times

Youth, Instagram, and any other obsessions from our times. Can addresses all of this as one of us, someone who is finding his way in Istanbul. Knowing, direct and sweetly honest, he gives is a piece of his mind.

Taking a leap..

When you’re a teenager, it’s almost impossible to find your way.. But surely the clichés are true and you always feel deep inside what you really want to do. Society and your family points out some professions that are correct according to their ideas. This is how I started to study political science. At some point I found I could not hold myself back from what I’ve always wanted to do, so I quit politics and that’s it. On the other hand I’ve never regretted this period of time, which gave me an idea of social awareness.

“People have started to avoid the real feelings and expressions of the people in front of them”

The beginning…

I guess my first trip to London was the trigger. Seeing the free spirited youth with amazing styles was an enlightening experience.

Past and present……

I find inspiration from social behaviours, traditions, social movements and I believe I can find inspiration from all unique cultures from around the globe.. It means, at this point, yes I need to look to the past in the process of designing, and also I need to be aware of the present.

“Loneliness is the plague of our time, and the reason is our excesses

Behind our feelings….

My main concern is; how we became alienated by our own expressions due to technology. People have started to avoid the real feelings and expressions of the people in front of them, just because of our obsession to check Instagram or Facebook.. So I designed expressive garments to create the invincible, I took one more step and applied real facial expressions. Loneliness is the plague of our time, and the reason is our excesses. Basically this collection is the way of expressing all of this.

24 hours…

After waking up everything is super quick. A quick shower, a quick breakfast, a quick walk with the dog and in the meantime a mailbox check then off to work. It’s good that my job is something I love very much so I understand how the time passes so quickly. After work, meeting some friends, having drinks, dinner and then I run back home. If I need to work a bit more I stay up to finish, and then final checks for everything, and at the end, the ”beloved” big sleep.

Photography: Stella Schwendner