Designer travels | Turkey

Turkey has a rich, centuries-old textile story that still feels alive. Nestled between Europe’s design sophistication and Asia’s incredible innovation and scale. For James Dunlop, it’s an essential part of our global supply chain.

What always captures me is how deeply embedded craft is in daily life, through colour palettes, patterns, architecture, and the way people talk about material. On this trip, we spent our days in mills and studios reviewing new yarns, exploring design archives, talking about process, and seeing textile innovations up close. It’s endlessly inspiring to witness old techniques and new technologies coexisting beautifully.

We stayed at Hotel Ibrahim Pasha, tucked into a pair of 19th-century Ottoman townhouses in Sultanahmet. The interiors are layered, thoughtful, and quietly luxurious. Imagine a cozy library-style lounge with patinated leather chairs, Casamance wallpaper, and a marble staircase that winds up to a mosaic rooftop terrace with a postcard-perfect view of the Blue Mosque.

Start with the icons: the Hagia Sophia and the Blue Mosque. No matter how many photos you’ve seen, the real thing is transcendent. The Hagia Sophia’s vast dome and mosaics offer light that seems to breathe, whilst the Blue Mosque’s 20,000 İznik tiles shimmer in a sea of turquoise.

Then move into the contemporary: the Istanbul Museum of Modern Art on the Karaköy waterfront and SALT Galata, a stunning adaptation of the 1892 Imperial Ottoman Bank. Offering a fantastic example of historic texture meeting modern evolution, SALT Galata is itself an exceptional space featuring original marble and bank vaults, focussed on conversations at the cross-section of art, architecture, and design – just as we are in the interiors industry.

During our weekend off we escaped south to Bodrum, where the Aegean water is a shade of crystalline turquoise you wouldn’t believe until you’re within. We spent the day aboard a handmade Gulet with a local couple who cooked a fresh Mediterranean lunch for us as we drifted between secluded bays. It was pure magic – salt air, sunlight, and that effortless Turkish hospitality.

So many textiles! We returned with boxes of samples from our mill visits – swatches that will be the seeds of our 2026 and 2027 collections. Our Turkish suppliers have an incredible breadth of capability, from performance synthetics to fine bespoke linens, and always offer the opportunity for customization – a critical part of our design DNA.

And, of course, I couldn’t resist shopping for rugs. We stumbled across Erol Kazanci from Gallery Shirvan who is known locally as the Master of Carpets and has been dealing in Authentic handmade rugs for more than 40 years. A true connoisseur who, coincidentally, once lived in the South Island of New Zealand (where I’m from) – we connected instantly!

The city is an architectural conversation in itself. Byzantine domes juxtaposed with modern glass, industrial spaces reborn as galleries, it can teach you a lot about contrast and continuity. How light interacts with stone, tile, and metal; how sacred geometry weaves through everything from pavements to textiles.

Istanbul reminded me that design is as much about rhythm and proportion as it is about ornament. Every corner of Istanbul feels intentional, from a tiled doorway to the curve of a minaret - it’s a city that sharpens your eye and softens your heart all at once!

The power of collaboration. Being at the bottom of the globe we are adept at working from afar with our Turkish suppliers, but sitting alongside their designers and yarn technicians in their own workplace reminds you how productive it is to work through design developments in person. The speed and creativity that occurs is unmatched.

We have longstanding relationships with our suppliers, James Dunlop has been wholesaling textiles for over 100 years, and our mills are genuine experts in their craft. When you share ideas over Turkish tea in a mill full of looms, that’s when the true magic takes place.