Christmas In Istanbul

Here are a few snaps of our Christmas celebrations at Adnan's house on December 24th...

Adnan warming up the lettuce in the kitchen

A greek, an American and a Turk

Selen & I contemplating the use of the key? ring gift

L-R: Işıl, Birnur, Adnan;
Background: Levent & Adonis (yes, that's right, The Greek God);
Mid right foreground: David;
Right: Nick

Welcome friends of Thomas from BelgiumThe 2007 Istanbul Christmas CrewIn the mix
Top down

The Professional Look

This is a picture of Birnur taken last weekend, although we wont be using this picture for a certain designer competition, I personally like it.

photograph courtesy of ARKmedia

Hasta Pronto Barcelona

Birnur is off to Barcelona to visit one of Europe's largest fashion fairs in January so I have decided to tag along and make the most of the accommodation subsidised by her company. We'll be sharing the apartment with Birnur's boss and another designer but all the same it will be nice!

I'll most likely attend the show for a day or so to get some marketing / merchandising ideas and then do the tourist route around Barcelona whilst Birnur is working. There will also be some people I know there from Turkey so I can spend some time with them.

"A falta de pan, las tortas son buenas", or as we say in English, "We'll just have to make do"

Fashion World Glamour

Last week end I worked as a factory worker to help prepare our customer's products.

Geçen hafta sonu fabrikada işçi olarak calışıp ve müşterimizin ürünleri hazırladim

A laborious knitting machine worker

Garment steaming

Autumn Morning Views Over The Bosphorus

These days the weather is getting cooler but the early morning views are a treat for early risers.

Bugünlerde hava soğuk oluyor ama insanlar erken kalkarsa sabah sabah manzarası zevk veriyor.

sabah sabah Boğaziçi manzarası

Off with the thongs, On with the boots

We were fortunate enough to experience the very finest four days in Antalya recently as we were treated to the last days of Turkish Summer. Each day averaged 26 egrees and we were spoilt to be able to bask in the Mediterranean each day.

I look out my window today and that Antalya experience only days ago seems only possible to have been many weeks ago. I know that the welcome rain will become a familiar sight over the winter months. The streets will once again become very difficult to walk, the roads will become choked and the pace of the city will slow to a near halt as the inadequate infrastructure strains to cope with the adversities of winter in Istanbul.

The Antalya Film Festival

A good friend, Adnan, shot a documentary in Afghanistan recently and entered his film, Opium Dreams (http://www.arkmedia.ca/intro.swf) into the Antalya (Turkey) Golden Orange Film Festival. A group of us went down to Antalya, southern Turkey, to support Adnan in this important time for him.

We stayed at the hotel where Adnan & Sibel were staying, The Sea Life Hotel (http://www.sealiferesorthotel.com/en/indexen.html). Without going into any detail I can thouroughly recommend NOT STAYING AT THIS HOTEL unless you are looking for the complete refugee holiday package. I have had my own back on this establishment by various online hotel reviews.

On the surface, the organisation of the festival appeared to be excellent with free shuttle service / limousine service to whatever location you wanted. There were complimentary gala dinners and partys thrown at the most ostentatious of venues I could have imagined. If you could pallate the pretentious and most vacuous of persons then you were in the right place!

We teamed up with Adnan, Sibel, Thomas, Bashir and Dirk to make the most of the four days that we were presented with. After the average two hours of sleep after an evening's innings we would have breakfast, lay on the beach, go for lunch, back to the beach, followed by sauna and massage in preparation for the new evening's fothcoming fun and frivolities.

The results for Adnan, let alone the rest of the documentary category were extremely disappointing. The festival organisers, in what the Turkish film industry concedes was a political decision, cancelled the documentary category and any prize associated with winning.

I can say that Adnan's film was excellent, some of Turkey's top director's had previewed the film and given excellent feedback to him. He wasn't expecting to win the documentary category but he wasn't expecting a ridiculous outcome such that happened.

The interesting thing is that the films were all reviewed for their acceptability prior to being allowed to participate. The final decision of the judges, whom we can't understand what qualifications facilitated their judging, was an insult to the screening judges prior to the event. Secondly, some of the films were previously part of the Cannes Film Festival receiving much acclaim.

The judges' final decision not only hurt the image of Turkey's up and coming film talent, it has also wounded the international image of the whole Antalya film festival itself. All I can say is that I am glad I didn't have to pay to be robbed of my time to see the films that were award recipients.

One thing that can be said about the film festival is that the outcomes were consistent with expectations of Turkey's 'Professional Organisations'.

Gallipoli, Çanakkale, Assos, Ezine

We just returned from a couple of days in Çanakkale, Galipolli, Assos, and Ezine. This picture is taken of the great temple to Athena in Assos, Turkey. Assos was founded in the 8th century B.C. by colonists from Lesvos. They built the temple in 530 B.C., these are the ruins on the high mountain above the North Aegean Sea.

Ruins of the temple to Athena, Assos, Turkey.

Ruins of the temple to Athena, Assos, Turkey.

At ANZAC Cove, Gallipoli, in front of the famous words of Kemal Atatürk

The clock tower, Çanakkale, Turkey

Melbourne Trade Fashion Show

Nic just after opening the stand
Lauren & Kathleen flying the flag on opening day

Yo's Crib

I've been fortunate enough to escape car accidents in front gardens and spend some of my time working at Johann's house. Here are a few thousand words in pictures!!

As Luck would have it....

Last Sunday evening, Father's Day, I was out in the front garden at a friends house in Melbourne assisting him and one other guy to clean up Andrew's yard area. We decided for a Jack Daniels and cigarette break, necessetating us all to go inside for 5 - 10 minutes.

The three of us were sitting inside chatting for about two minutes when all of a sudden we heard horriffic car skidding sounds followed by what sounded to be a 4 - 6 car pile up, in front of his house, and then silence.

We all quickly mobilised through the front door into the front garden and we were horrified by the sight that greeted us. As they say, a picture tells a thousand words, so I will let the images speak for themselves...

Formerly known as a BMW, parked on top of a tenant's car in Andrew's front gardden

I've heard of a picnic but this is ridiculous!!!

The picnic from the rearI know where I can get a good priced BWM, let me know if you are interested

Andrew doing his bit for the community

The upside down BWM caught fire in the engine bay, we were lucky that Andrew had a fire extinguisher in the boot of his car. We put out the fire and talked to the BWM driver to keep him relaxed. He reported only a few scratches, mainly on his hands. Naturally he was also in shock.

Witnesses say that he was travelling at around 150 - 160kmh in a 60kmh zone, also the Police say that the driver is uninsured, we suspect due to alcohol or drugs in his system. This was one lucky guy to get out alive. The car that the BMW landed on is actually one of the tenants at Andrew's house. Surprisingly there was not excessive damage inflicted.

Anyway, I am in Melbourne all of 4 days and I am already appearing on the national news doing interviews. Perhaps they caught wind of my acting career in Turkey and wanted to use some famous people for the interview :)

The Surf Coast, Victoria

Winki Pop Beach is next to Bells Beach in Victoria, Australia. Bells Beach is the first event of the World Surfing Tour. I spent many years growing up in this area, some 90kms from Melbourne. It takes 5 minutes by car from mum & dad's house to reach here.

View of Bells Beach from Winki Pop lookout

View of Bells Beach from Winki Pop lookout

Winki Pop Beach

The Jan Juc Ranch with Mum & Dad

Footage of mum and dad at the ranch in Jan Juc.

Lives Saved In Melbourne

Upon arriving to Jan Juc, some 90 km from Melbourne, the winds were as high as 120kmh. Two surfers found themselves caught on rocks early this morning so rescue helicopters, State Emergency Services, Police and the Fire Brigade came to their rescue. If you're in Australia you should watch chanel 7 news tonight, I will most likely appear for approximately 5 seconds :) Here are a couple of action snaps amidst the pandemonium...

The rescue teams watch the retrieval of the two surfers

CFA & Police rescue base

The clubbies coming to the rescue

The Weekend at Ağva

The evening Scene over Ağva RiverDinner on the riverDinner# 2BreakfastR&RAğva Beach
Ağva BeachRe-enacting scenes from The Karate Kid when Daniel Son is in trainingA kickin' house on the river

Company Launch

We're live with our site. We're also headed to Melbourne for the 2007 Preview Fashion Show at the Melbourne Exhibition Centre on September 9, 10 & 11. We hope to see you there, if you would like to attend I can happily arrange tickets for you. Come on down to see the exciting debut of our 2008 Australian Men's Autumn / Winter collection.


Like anything we couldn't have gotten to where we are today without the help of close friends and family. I would like to thank the following people for their support and contribution:

First and foremost, for her amazing designs, the talented Birnur Garland;
Peter & Robyn Garland - for financial and strategic advice;
Nicole Garland - Assisting at the Preview Show in September;
Kathleen Holloway - Assisting at the Preview Show in September;
Georg Wuerffel - German translations, german market intelligence, generous offers of modelling, and my future partner in taking over the world;
Hanim Sevim - Turkish translations and general moral support;
Adnan Khan - The sounding board & think tank;
Dirk Vossding - The sounding board & think tank, generous offers of modelling;
Jason Ebert - The sounding board & think tank, general consultation, generous offers of modelling and:
Jerome Brasi - For his moral support and generous offers of assistance that I will take up one day!

Also I can not forget my friends in general who are all inspiring characters in one way or another and who have provided me with more support than they know, thank you!!!

And the viewers tune in....

Thanks everybody for visiting. Please leave your comments to let me know you've been here...