One of the most beautiful things about writing is encountering inspiring stories and perhaps even accompanying them on their journey. Today, I want to talk about a brand that is very different from what I usually encounter in terms of its story and positioning and the creative mind behind it: Lug von Siga and Gül Ağış.
Anyone familiar with the Turkish fashion scene knows how important and inspiring this brand is. Gül founded her label in 2009. She didn’t want to use her own name directly, so she played with the letters of her surname and through this small linguistic exercise, the name of her brand was born.
She studied fashion design at Istituto Marangoni in Milan and, after completing her studies there, went on to pursue a master’s degree in fashion design at Politecnico di Design with a European Union scholarship. Gül stayed in Milan, the fashion capital of Italy, for about seven years. After finishing her education, she worked for four years at Costume National in Italy. When she returned to Türkiye, she further broadened her experience by leading the design department of one of the country’s largest export companies.
Then, as I mentioned, in 2010 she founded her own brand. She has said, "I didn’t want to create a brand that carried my own name. I wanted to build a prêt-à-porter, a ready-to-wear fashion brand from Türkiye that meets global standards.”
So how did I meet her? It was 2015. Her brand had already become highly successful and her design sensibility was so distinctive that she was regularly presenting her collections and was invited to showcase at Mercedes-Benz Fashion Week Madrid. I met Gül during that show in Madrid.
After that, we crossed paths countless times – at fashion shows, presentations, capsule collections, collaborative projects, showroom launches, events and dinners organized around them. Over more than 10 years of knowing her, one thing I can say with certainty is that she never stops working, never stops exploring, and constantly evolves her design language, approaching each piece as if she becomes entirely absorbed in it.
In our culture, craftsmanship traditions such as dowry-making hold an important place. Everything is made by hand, carefully and intricately crafted. It is almost the transfer of vision, hope, dreams and cultural memory to the next generation. As someone who has written about fashion for years, I can say that carrying this spirit into prêt-à-porter design is something extremely rare. When you hold her pieces in your hands, you immediately understand how special they are. When you wear them, they feel different, and most importantly, they are pieces you never want to let go of.
In today’s fashion world, where everything moves so quickly and excess often dominates, bringing together the spirit of the moment, European education and working discipline and the rich craftsmanship, patterns and textiles of Anatolia and the broader Turkish cultural geography deserves recognition.
Her patterns, which gently touch the female form with refined elegance, are so distinctive that I have often observed elements of her design language echoed in what could be described as "inspiration” across various luxury brands, retail giants and fast fashion labels.
From transforming the pool and beach area of the luxury hotel Prince’s Palace in Büyükada with her design touch, to creating cologne and fragrances for the Hommade Aromatherapy brand, to designing capsule collections for various clothing brands that sell out immediately upon release. Both Lug von Siga and Gül Ağış have, for years, offered a world that is rich, authentic and deeply rooted in this geography.
When we met again after the grand fashion show marking the 10th anniversary of her brand, she told me: "I brought my brand to where it is today without any investors or family support. It was not an easy process. I’m sure many designers feel the same. Most of the time, it feels like being left on an island, like Robinson Crusoe. Managing the financial side of a fashion brand is not easy at all. Those who cannot handle it disappear from the industry. Those of us who remain standing have, out of necessity, become experts in everything related to finance as well.”
This week, we met again in her showroom to take a closer look at the new season collection. Once again, the colors, patterns, cuts and fabrics were flawless. I felt fortunate to witness once more the continued growth of one of the rare Turkish brands that offers a fully developed 360-degree creative world at a truly international standard.
Gül, who was excitedly discussing an upcoming international project next week and mentioning a collaboration with a foreign brand while showing her new sketches, once again demonstrated how a brand built on a real story can achieve such refined and compelling beauty.