On a recent tripette, to Istanbul, Mr and Mrs That's Not My Age found; gorgeous ceramic baubles, trinkets, beautiful mosques, pomegranates by the cartload, as well as modern cafés, bars, boutique hotels and the latest edition to the Condé Nast stable, Turkish Vogue - with famous Turkish model, Jessica Stam on the cover. Now, I'll say no more about that little cultural conundrum but the Jezebel website sums it up nicely here....
Look beyond the cover and there's a lovely feature listing twentieth century Vogue fashion shoots in Turkey. Shot by the likes of Cecil Beaton, Irving Penn and David Bailey - so what if the cover of the first issue was photographed in New York by Patrick Demarchelier?
We took a trip to Istanbul Modern, apparently named after the Tate in London but in a serious case of of one-upmanship, this museum has a painted, red carpet leading up to the entrance. Oh how we enjoyed our little stroll along the walkway of fame - and are even thinking of recreating the look in the entrance to our apartment block.
We discovered that the Turkish are animal lovers. There are more cats in Istanbul than mosques, and on our sightseeing tour we encountered a pack of wild dogs and a very clever Easter bunny:
According to the Financial Times, Turkey has the potential to be like Milan in five years time, well, they already have the maniac car drivers and the smog. Aside from being European city of culture 2010, Turkey has it's own fashion week with loads of talented designers including Tween and Desa. (Click here to read ace blogger Disney Roller Girl's piece on Tween), designer stores and shopping malls (which we didn't visit, this was a cultural visit, after all) - and the provocatively named boutique, Midnight Express which stocks Turkish designer Bora Aksu (who shows at London/Paris fashion weeks), and has a fine line in slogan t-shirts:
But our favourite shops were the junk shops in Beyoglu - where we discovered how rubbish we were at haggling - and paid over the odds for our only souvenir:
A globe without a stand (to add to our collection, more on this coming soon). The man in the shop claimed the hanging globe was his idea but a little trip to the Pera Museum told us otherwise:
Do you have any tips on haggling? If so, please share them. And what's your favourite holiday souvenir?
13 comments:
I was in Istanbul years ago and I was so ill after drinking a bottle of red wine..can no longer drink red, only white. Also there was a rubbish strike on and it was mid August..the place was very smelly. Did have a fab day out up the Bosphorous tho'. Glad you had a great time> Missed the blog, love your pics x
We love Istanbul - we went for a little tripette ourselves about 5 years ago now... (definitely time to go again soon!) but we were a bit rubbish at haggling too... Mr SE's stance on this though is to say "No, we don't want it" and then walk away whilst I looked on horrified!! Usually they ran after us and offered a better price! We bought the most wonderful wing chair upholstered with a kilim rug (I picked out the one I wanted them to use) and then they shipped it back to UK for us... It was not a HUGE bargain but it was not bad and certainly loads cheaper than those on George Smith's website! Love your globe! Happy Easter and enjoy the long weekend. x
Looks like you had a great time. Best tip for Haggling? pretend you don't want it for the price they ask and begin to walk away.
Fabulous, fabulous photography! I love the fortune-telling bunny. I would also be useless at haggling. It looks like you had a wonderful time :)
I type this during a brief interlude during my easter party, Love all the snaps, esp Karl and the Globe. I need to go to Istanbul. Am bad at hagglibg- I give them what they want xxx
FG - this is the first time I've visited Turkey and not had terrible food poisoning - things are looking up!
SE and Looking Fab - you're right I think the key is to pretend you don't want it and to have a realistic price in mind. We just caved in.
Rosina - I thank you.
FF - perhaps you could practise haggling with Mr FF before you book the flight to Istanbul?
So jealous - Istanbul has to be one of my top three destinations to go to! I'm a great haggler, I have no shame when it comes to beating down the price. My best haggle was in Tunisia on the basis my French was good enough for him to think I was a Belgian!
I love Istanbul. I went twice for work years ago and would love to see it now. Thanks for this post. No good haggling tips though. I just try twice and then go for whatever.
Great post. Makes me want to go too. Mr Fashionistable is great at haggling you should ask him for tips. I have had the guys trying to negotiate with him turn to me and plead for help....
Haggling tips - offer them a quarter of what they are asking. If they shrug and wave you away, ask them what their lowest price is, then knock 20% of that and try again. Knocked a Tunisian market seller down from 140 to 30 dinars on my gorgeous red camel hold-all which has been all around the world with me for years. Istanbul - I've been 6 times and only seen the hotel and the office... very envious.
I never have the nerve to haggle either - I definitely can't do a poker face, so I'm a dead give away. Not sure about my favourite souvenir, probably one of these:
a couple of those little bottles of coloured sand, one from Grenada, one from Brasil;
some little hand carved wooden animals from Argentina;
a sepia photograph of a chattel house & a tree from Barbados;
a little terracota building from Peru;
a little black & white wooden bird from California.
That snap in the hat so does NOT do you justice. Believe me, she's sassier than that, readers.....
VOGUE magazine is really original, cool and interesting. All the fashion trends are there and you can get to know what the fashion is like in countries like Brazil or others of South America. I actually decided to travel to argentina last year because the have the best models and fashion shows, and I wanted to be present, it is amazing!
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