TÜRKÜ
ŞAHİN
Welcome to the website of the Istanbul-based designer and journalist Türkü Şahin
ABOUT
Fashion designer . Academic . Journalist
Türkü Şahin works across fashion design, cultural criticism, academic research and journalism, combining creative practice with critical and scholarly inquiry. Her interdisciplinary approach is rooted in undergraduate studies at the prestigious Fashion Institute of Technology (FIT) in New York and two master’s degrees in art history and psychology, providing a foundation for both practical and academic insight. Engaging in multidisciplinary cultural analysis informed by psychoanalytic thought, her work reflects a rigorous and nuanced approach to understanding creativity across cultural and scholarly contexts.
FASHION DESIGN
Türkü Şahin began her career at the Fashion Institute of Technology (FIT) in New York, where she built expertise defined by both technical precision and conceptual depth. After having worked in New York for several years, she returned to Istanbul and started to work for a design studio that created collections for the Inditex Group. Today, her experience as a designer extends beyond garment creation into cultural narrative, developing contextual collections such as Les Femmes des Gainsbourg and Mute, a collection dedicated to the Gezi Park protests where fashion functions as a medium for cultural and conceptual investigation.
Alongside her independent design practice, Türkü provides corporate design consultancy for textile brands, contributing to trend forecasting, colour direction, concept development, and collection coherence. She also participates in local and international design events as both a designer and speaker, including gatherings such as Milan Design Week and the Istanbul Biennial, where her work engages with broader conversations on contemporary design and culture.
CULTURAL CRITICISM
Türkü Şahin’s cultural criticism is grounded in her academic work on fashion theory and design criticism, throughout which she examines how visual, textual, and sonic forms carry meaning within cultural contexts. Her approach focuses on reading creativity, design, and cultural production as systems of expression that reflect shifts in identity, values, and collective experience. transformation.
JOURNALISM
Alongside her academic and consultancy work, Türkü Şahin maintains an active presence in cultural journalism, writing on design, aesthetics and psychoanalysis for leading local and international publications. Previously, she served as Editor-in-Chief of the Turkish edition of Frame – The Great Indoors Magazine, engaging with pioneering architects and designers such as Juhani Pallasmaa, Claudio Bellini and Alessandro Mendini. She has also written for XOXO The Mag, where she interviewed influential figures including fashion entrepreneur Renzo Rosso.
Today, she contributes to Cumhuriyet, one of Turkey’s most established newspapers, exploring the intersections of style, cultural identity, and contemporary thought, and has interviewed influential cultural figures and activists, including Shirley Manson.
ACADEMY
After having worked in the fashion and textile industry in New York and Istanbul, Türkü Şahin shifted her focus to fashion theory and criticism, identifying a gap in undergraduate fashion design programmes in Istanbul. She began contributing to university courses by mentoring students and guiding their creative work, drawing on her industry expertise. Seeking to complement her industry experience with academic study, she pursued a master’s degree in Art History at Istanbul Technical University and a MSc in Psychology at Birmingham City University, developing an interdisciplinary approach that frames design as a creative practice informed by psychoanalytic and social-psychological perspectives. Today, she teaches courses on design criticism, the psychology of design, and the exploration of creative possibilities at Istanbul Bilgi University, as well as in the dual degree programme of the Fashion Institute of Technology and Istanbul Technical University, combining practical industry insight with rigorous academic research.
CONTACT
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© 2013 Türkü Şahin