The Turkish fashion designer Asli Filinta staged a recent show of her designs in a former Istanbul synagogue that until 2015 housed the Turkish Jewish Museum.
According to her Instagram and a video of the show on YouTube, a capacity crowd lined the sides of the sanctuary of the Zulfaris Synagogue to watch models parade down a runway that occupied the central part of the hall, while musicians sat in front of the empty Ark. The show took place this past spring, as part of the Mercedes Benz Fashion Week.
In an article in The Forward, Matt A. Hanson described the scene:
At the show, models walked ahead of the synagogue’s empty Torah ark in sheer dresses and veils, draped in embroidered lace. The electro-acoustic duo “Insanlar” (meaning, “humans”), buzzed with the psychedelic sound of Anatolian fusion as the baglama saz followed a rhythmic trance. In front of gilded columns of marble and the carved wood of the ark, the gathering evoked a poignant air.
The synagogue was inaugurated in 1823 and underwent extensive renovation in 1890 and 1904. A dwindling congregation forced its closure for religious services in 1983, and in 2001 it became the premises of the Turkish Jewish Museum. The museum moved out of the building in 2015 and reopened with a revamped exhibit in new premises at the Neve Shalom synagogue.
In The Forward article, Hanson wrote that Filinta’s fashion collection embraced “Turkey’s multicultural heritage,” with colors and fabrics that reflected centuries-old crafts and trade. Filinta described to him why she chose the former synagogue as a venue:
“I didn’t debut my latest collection in the former building of Zulfaris Synagogue as a bold statement but to complete my story,” she says. “My fashion designs are a way of expressing that no one is better, no one is weaker, no one is stronger. During the same period, people came together to build up the society of the Ottoman times.”
Read the full article in The Forward
Click to watch a video of the full fashion show