Salvaged Leather Exhibition / İyi Tasarım İzmir_4

Having been the part of Good Design İzmir 4 organized by İzmir Mediterranean Academy with the theme of “Cycles”, Salvaged Leather Exhibition presents design works that propose new solutions to the waste problem in the leather industry. The Exhibition, which is organized by Assoc. Prof. Dr. Şölen Kipöz from IUE Fashion and Textile Department, includes the works of other academics and designers including Lect. Jörn Fröhlich (IUE), Res. Asst. Elif Tekcan (IUE), Idil Şansal (IUE graduate), Aslısu Türkmen, Hakan Başak and Berrin Gönen in addition to Kipöz’s own designs.

Curator and concept designer Assoc. Dr. Şölen Kipöz describes the content of the exhibition, which consists of two parts as follows: “Although they are durable, in the consumption cycle, which is adapted to fashion’s speed of change, leather objects cannot be sold at the determined market value at the end of the season. Leather garments and accessories, which are put up for sale especially in the coastal areas in summer, are left on the hangers and wears out. Within the scope of the exhibition, these clothes, which lost their market values, are given a second life with the design touch, and presented in a design collection with a purpose of saving and reusing them in a new economic model.”

Assoc. Dr. Şölen Kipöz's design journey, which has been carried out since 2012 aims to increase the value of old clothes with design, and Salvaged Leather Exhibition, which becomes the final stage of this journey, offers an industrial project model for circular economy by going beyond giving new lives to clothes. Kipöz explains this model as follows: “We transformed a series of leather jackets that we obtained from an outlet store by adding them value with design, with the aim of keeping them in an economic cycle. In this process, we combined them with the end of the roll fabrics of a leading menswear company (Br Mağazacılık) and produced them in the production facility of a leading brand in a leather sector (Lider Deri). I believe that this project will open a new vision for the leather industry to adopt a waste-free and circular production and consumption approach.”

The exhibition was held at Kültürpark Hall 1-A between 18 October -3 November 2019. In addition to collections, which have been created with the transformation of leather jackets, the exhibition presented a series of garments and accessories upcycled from leather wastes. These designs have been reviewed and selected by international jury members including Duygu Atalay, Hazel Clark, Erica De Greef, Gönül Paksoy, Nesrin Türkmen, Otto Von Busch and Yüksel Şahin, in addition to Lect. Angela Burns from IUE Fashion and Textile Design Department. This section gives place to the products of various designers including Ayşe Yıldız, Canan Erdönmez, Ceren Evren Dikener, Çiğdem Çoşkun, Didar Çeler, Eser Bayramoğlu, Esra Enes, Gülşen Şefika Berber, Hülya Yavuz, Mine Değirmenci, Kübra Erçetin, Riina Oun, Zeynep Değirmenci.  

All designs taking part in the exhibition were collected in an exhibition catalogue, edited by Şölen Kipöz and designed by Elif Tekcan. Lect. Toros Mutlu from Visual Communication Design also contributed to the catalogue with a photo shooting.  

For the catalogue click here.