Shopping in Istanbul
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Jennifer's Hamam
Owned by Canadian Jennifer Gaudet, the two Arasta Bazaar branches of this shop stock top-quality hamam items including towels, robes and peştemals (bath wraps) produced on old-style hand-shuttled looms. It also sells natural soaps and keses (coarse cloth mittens used for exfoliation).
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Sali Pazari
On Tuesday there is a massive market in Kadıköy, on the Asian side: the Sali Pazari. The cheapest clothes in town are on sale here, so if you've been on the road for a while and your underwear needs replenishing, this is the place to do it! To get there, get off the ferry and move straight ahead along the major boulevard of Söğütlüçeşme Caddesi for about 500m until you come to a busy intersection, Altıyol Square.
Cross over, take the right fork and continue eastward along Kuşdili Caddesi for another 250m (three cross streets). At Hasırcıbaşı Caddesi turn left and you'll see the tent-city market spread out before you. It's open between 08:00 and 18:00. On Sunday…
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Gönül Paksoy
Gönül Paksoy creates and sells pieces that transcend fashion and step into art. In fact, her work was the subject of a 2007 exhibition at İstanbul's Rezan Haş Gallery. These two shops showcase her distinctive clothing, which is made using naturally dyed fabrics and is often decorated with vintage beads. She also creates and sells delicate silk and cotton knits and exquisite jewellery based on traditional Ottoman designs.
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Muhlis Günbattı
One of the most famous stores in the bazaar, Muhlis Günbattı specialises in suzani fabrics from Uzbekistan. These beautiful bedspreads, tablecloths and wall hangings are made from fine cotton embroidered with silk. As well as the textiles, it stocks top-quality carpets, brightly coloured kilims and a small range of antique Ottoman fabrics richly embroidered with gold. Its second shop in Sultanahmet sells a wider range of costumes at stratospheric prices.
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Mavi Jeans
The dress code of choice for İstanbul's youth is a pair of worn jeans (usually tight and low-slung) and a fair percentage of these would have been purchased from local company Mavi. Among the most popular ranges are those designed by internationally recognised fashion designer, Rıfat Özbek. Prices are at least half of those of foreign imports. There are other branches at İstiklal Caddesi 195 and 425.
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Milano Güzeliş
When this family-run business started trading here in 1957, it was one of only 10 or so jewellery shops in the Grand Bazaar. The Güzelış family have been making jewellery to order using every gold grade and every conceivable gem ever since, and have built a trusted reputation in the process.
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Ali Muhıddin Hacı Bekir
It's obligatory to sample lokum while in İstanbul, and one of the best places to do so is at this historic shop, which has been operated by members of the same family for over 200 years. Buy it sade (plain), or made with cevizli (walnut), fıstıklı (pistachio), badem (almond) or roze (rose water). There's another store in Beyoğlu.
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Mehmet Çetinkaya Gallery
Mehmet Çetinkaya is known as one of the country's foremost experts on antique oriental carpets and kilims. His flagship store-cum-gallery stocks items that have artistic and ethnographic significance, and is full of treasures. There's a second shop selling rugs, textiles and objects in the Arasta Bazaar.
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Haremlique
The shops around the fashionable W Istanbul hotel are some of the most glamorous in the city. Among the international labels that are based here is this local business, which sells top-drawer bed linen and bathwares. Come here to source items such as boudoir cushion-covers featuring Ottoman rococo prints – they're certain to wow your guests back home.
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Midnight Express
Local designer Banu Bora chose the ultra-chic Mısır Apartment Building on İstiklal Caddesi as the Beyoğlu location for her business, reinforcing its status as the city’s most sophisticated fashion boutique. It stocks Bora’s own labels (there are two) plus clothes and accessories from local and international designers. If the door is closed, ring the bell. There’s another store in Bebek that sells both fashion and homewares.
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Istanbul Handicrafts Market
Set in the small rooms surrounding the leafy courtyard of the 18th-century Cedid Mehmed Efendi Medresesi, this handicrafts centre next door to the Yeşil Ev hotel is unusual in that local artisans sometimes work here and don’t mind if visitors watch. Their creations are available for purchase; it’s a great place to source beautiful calligraphy, glassware, hand embroidery, miniature paintings, ceramics and fabric dolls.
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Ark Lıne
One of the motifs of contemporary Turkish fashion is the inspiration local designers take from their Ottoman heritage. Ark Line has followed Gönül Paksoy in referencing the sartorial style of the sultans and their entourages in its collections. The clothes here are nowhere near as assured and desirable as Paksoy’s, but they are considerably cheaper, meaning that they sit within most budgets.
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Leyla Eski Eşya Pazarlama
If you love old clothes, you'll adore Leyla Seyhanlı's boutique. Filled to the brim with piles of vintage embroidery and outfits, it's a rummager's delight. It stocks everything from 1950s taffeta party frocks to silk-embroidery cushion covers that would've been at home in the Dolmabahçe Palace linen cupboard.
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Yazmacı Necdet Danış
Fashion designers and buyers from every corner of the globe know that when in İstanbul, this is where to come to source top-quality textiles. It's crammed with bolts of fabric of every description – shiny, simple, sheer and sophisticated – as well as peştemals, scarves and clothes. Murat Danış next door is part of the same operation.
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Istinye Park
Perhaps the best of the city’s malls is İstinye Park, located in the upper Bosphorus suburb of İstinye. You’ll find classy department stores Beymen and Vakko here, a slew of prestige international designers, and high-street chains including Banana Republic, Marks & Spencer, Mavi and Zara. Eateries include branches of Mezzaluna and The House Café.
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Abdulla Natural Products
The first of the Western-style designer stores to appear in this ancient marketplace, Abdulla sells top-quality cotton bed linen and towels, handspun woollen throws from Eastern Turkey, cotton peştemals (bath wraps) and pure olive-oil soap. There's another branch in the Fes Cafe in Nuruosmaniye.
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Tezgah Alley
Put your elbows to work fighting your way to the front of the tezgah (stalls) in this alleyway off İstiklal Caddesi, which are heaped with T-shirts, jumpers, pants and shirts on offer for under TL10 per piece. Turkey is a major centre of European clothing manufacture, and the items here are often factory run-ons from designer or high-street-chain orders.
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Artrium
Crammed with antique ceramics, calligraphy, maps, prints and jewellery, this Aladdin's cave of a shop is most notable for the exquisite miniatures by Iranian artist Haydar Hatemi.
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Haseki Hamam Carpet & Kilim Sales Store
Located in the historic Baths of Lady Hürrem, which are worth a visit in their own right, this Ministry of Culture carpet shop sells new carpets replicated from museum pieces. Although prices are fixed and clearly marked, you can get better deals elsewhere. However, this is a good place to come to get an idea before you launch out into the carpet shops.
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Şişko Osman
The Osmans have been in the rug business for four generations and are rated by many as the best dealers in the bazaar. Certainly, their stock is a cut above many of their competitors. Most of the rugs on sale are dowry pieces and all have been hand woven and coloured with vegetable dyes.
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Ortaköy Market
On Saturday and Sunday the laneways around the waterfront mosque in Ortaköy host a flea market. Merchandise is tacky - most seems to come from the Subcontinent and Africa and is found in flea markets worldwide - and the handicrafts on offer are firmly in the hippy camp, but it's still a pleasant spot to while away a weekend hour or two.
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Art.I.Choke
Some places are as much art gallery as they are shop, and art.i.choke is most certainly one of them. A shrine to the wonderful art of felt, it creates and sells unique objects made from the fuzzy stuff. The clothes, slippers, cushions, shawls and rugs on offer here are truly exquisite. If there's no-one in the shop, try the upstairs studio.
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Horhor Antikacılar Çarşışı
Those seeking out authentic Ottoman souvenirs should visit the Horhor Antikacılar Çarşışı, where the city’s serious collectors congregate. This decrepit building in Aksaray is home to five floors of shops selling antiques, curios and bric-a-brac of every possible description, quality and condition.
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Dhoku
One of the new generation of rug stores opening in the bazaar, Dhoku (meaning 'texture') sells artfully designed wool kilims in resolutely modernist designs. Its sister store, EthniCon, opposite this store, sells similarly stylish rugs in vivid colours and can be said to have started the current craze in contemporary kilims.
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Doors
Local fashion designer Ümit Ünal is rapidly acquiring an international profile, with stores in New York, Hong Kong and London stocking his striking pieces. His women’s clothes, which use natural fabrics in muted colours, are best described as wearable art. Prices are surprising reasonable considering the originality and quality on offer.
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