Aslı Acar & Gamze Keklik, Entrepreneurs

Basicwear has become such a big part of our lives that it is competing with “chic wear.” How does this affect your designs?

We try to use both chic and basic aspects in our designs. That is actually the philosophy we opened with. We believe that when worn correctly, basicwear could make a difference in any environments and draw attention. By using different and high- quality materials in our products we compete with chic wear.

What would you say if you were to define Bassigue in 3 words?

Minimalistic, high-quality, cool.

Your brand is selling in both İstanbul and New York – what do you pay attention to to appeal to different cities?

We make our designs depending on things that inspire us. Then we brainstorm on which product should go where, and try to abide by it. While making this decision we consider the architecture, the people, the lifestyles of the people and their hobies who live in that city.

Who is the first one to call it a day between you two?

Aslı: Gamze! I never finish with work, I always create something new to work on, if I’m finished with today’s work, I begin on tomorrow’s. I can never sit still; I constantly have to be busy with something.

Gamze: I say this with embarrassment; me. I don’t enjoy sitting behind a desk too much. I’d rather finish a job at hand quickly rather than lingering on, which I guess is why I am the one to call it a day first.

We had a really hard time trying to explain the “Platonic to Gintonic” design to our mothers from our The Darkest Color collection. While our mothers thought of it as sipping gin and tonic with our platonic lovers, we were talking about devoting oneself to gin and tonic due to the lack of love from platonic lovers. The differences in generations sometimes cause funny conversations.

Being exclusive means providing people with privileges. That’s what we are trying to do. As oppose to making products which everyone has, we prefer to produce in limited numbers so that people can feel special.

Aslı: “You’ll miss me when I’m gone.”

Gamze: I have two: “Aspire to inspire before we expire” and “Be like a pineapple. Stand tall, wear a crown and be sweet on the inside.”