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on to earn a PhD from the Department of Sciences at Yildiz University, creates stunning one-of-a-kind articles of clothing as well as jewelry, scarves, and shoes. Her shop—open by appointment only—is a rather spare, minimalist space, yet quite warm and lovely. What you’ll find there are women’s-wear pieces (and some ties, sweaters, and bags for men) that harmoniously combine old fabrics with new—which sounds like stuff you’ve seen before, except you haven’t: positively no one is doing what Paksoy is doing. She takes gorgeous Ottoman textiles and reworks them into something classic and contemporary at the same time. Paksoy uses natural fabrics and dyes and works not only with cotton, silk, and linen but also velvet. (She’s also written eight lengthy books, which might explain why she sleeps only four or five hours a night and works seven days a week.) All the clothing items are loosely fitted, a bit like Eileen Fisher styles, and are in what she refers to as “Gönül Paksoy’s Colors,” which are mostly subtle shades (she herself likes beige, brown, and gray, but purple is a popular Ottoman color, so it turns up a lot in the fabrics she buys). She isn’t afraid to dye old fabrics herself, and she takes a museum approach to each piece.

Paksoy reportedly wears only her own creations, and she describes herself not as a fashion designer but as someone who endeavors to create functional works of art. Her jewelry collection is particularly appealing—necklaces feature amulets, old tassels, needle lace, or antique beads—and is designed to complement her garments. “Timeless simplicity” is how she describes her work, and in an interview with We Are the Turks Web site, she noted that Turkish culture is so inspiring she never has a problem finding new ideas: “The simplicity of dervish costumes is the source of the same simplicity in my designs. This is a simplicity which few people seek, perhaps because it is so hard to attain.” Paksoy’s pieces range from about $5,000 to $12,000. Note that her brother, Doğan Paksoy, owns the nearby Teşvikiye Art Gallery (Abdi Ipekci Caddesi 21 / +90 212 241 0458), featuring Ottoman landscape painters; in 2007 he was director of the Art Bosphorus fair.

Miniskirts Meet Minarets in the New Istanbul

ANNETTE GROSSBONGARDT

HERE’S A good piece featuring conversations with a few of Istanbul’s elites—and illustrating how urban planners are constantly challenged to keep this rapidly growing metropolis functioning.

ANNETTE GROSSBONGARDT, based in Istanbul, reports for Der Spiegel, a weekly German magazine founded in 1947, with a circulation of over a million a week. This piece appeared in Spiegel Online International, the magazine’s English-language Internet edition.

KAGAN GÜRSEL’S daily commute to work is one of the highlights of his day. The forty-seven-year-old Istanbul entrepreneur doesn’t have to worry about the stress of driving, nor is he forced to breathe the exhaust fumes with which millions of cars stuck in Istanbul’s never-ending traffic jams pollute the city’s air. Gürsel, who runs a hotel chain, goes to work on a boat, crossing the Bosporus twice a day.

The “Esma Sultan,” an old yellow and white pilot boat named after a proud daughter of a sultan, chugs steadily through the waves of the Bosporus. Along the way it passes giant container ships, oil tankers from Kazakhstan and a gleaming white cruise liner. “The Bosporus is different every day,” enthuses Gürsel. On blue summer days the sea is as smooth as silk, on stormy days the wind and rain turn the water an ominous steel gray, and in freezing temperatures the water is the color of turquoise.

Thirty-two kilometers (20 miles) long and, at its narrowest point, only 660 meters wide (2,165 feet), the Bosporus is Istanbul’s lifeline. Literature Nobel Prize winner Orhan Pamuk feels the city draws its strength from the Bosporus. “If the city speaks of defeat, destruction, deprivation, melancholy and poverty, the Bosporus sings of life, pleasure and happiness,” he writes in his 2003 memoir Istanbul, a love letter to the city of his birth.

Istanbul