Ali Efe Ekmekçi, Fashion Designer

Let us know about your background.

I have a styling and production background and that is actually the title of my Bachelors degree at London College of Fashion, which I’m graduating from this summer. Before that I took yearlong courses on sewing at Academie L’international de Coupe de Paris and fine arts/design at Gerrit Rietveld Academie.

How did you decide on starting your own brand?

I was assisting the designer Dilara Findikoglu last summer for her SS17 presentation and putting together a collection seemed like a great way to consolidate ideas. Styling had been a very powerful tool to communicate visually, such as playing with shape and form, set design and casting. However designing the garments opens up new sets of expressions through the combination of design, textiles, pattern cutting, and tailoring. After years of interning and studying different fields of the industry, I felt like I was ready to start my own brand.

Could you tell us about your creation process?

I was looking at how items at the gym can be reinterpreted in a new way for men. Such as carrying a kettlebell as a handbag, using ruffles to flex your muscles, or couturization of sweatpants. I was thinking about our ability to reinvent and challenge assumptions in our everyday surroundings and the heteronormative reiterations found across the media. I played with dynamic prints for the to convey the liquidity of truth and experimented with deconstructive tailoring. I titled the collection ‘fake news’ because almost everything is subversions of truths and we are doomed to think critically.

Can you share one life lesson you learnt by starting your own brand?

Being in the middle of a start-up business really pushes you to understand and excel on the tasks at hand. For that I could say that starting my own brand improved my focus . It also thought me a lot of patience through the application of professionalism with every single person i interact building my business.

What’s the next step for you?

I’m preparing to study MA Menswear and planning to learn new techniques and meet more amazing people.

Fashion influencers…

As most people, I’m also mostly inspired by big Parisian fashion houses, since I appreciate immaculate tailoring and craftsmanship presented with a sense of effortlessness. I also find those qualities with a rebellious twist in London based designers such as J.W.Anderson and Wales Bonner.