I made a couple of calls and discovered that he is a 37 year old Istanbul based designer, who won a major Turkish fashion competition. This earned him the attention of Mert Alas, one half of Matt & Marcus the photographic duo who shoot half of the worlds fashion campaigns. Alas encouraged him to get to London, and show at London Fashion Week, and here he is!
So will this show be hot? Well, French Vogue editor Carine Roitfeld is 100% coming to London tomorrow just to see his show. Sealing the deal, at least for the promise of a high end fashion show experience, Hakaan has Edward Enninful of US Vogue styling and has booked Lara Stone, Natalia Vodianova, Natasha Poly and Anje Rubik to model for him! AMAZING.
Having now met the designer, and seen the clothes I can see why Carine Roitfeld would like them; they look like they were made for her. Sexy, short, long, lean and with an architectural element that gives it a high fashion kick.
As I write Hakaan is hard at work with his team in a basement in Shoreditch, doing fittings. He doesn’t speak much English, but what he lacked in chattiness he made up for with some nifty pinning and pulling. I don’t want to get into hype territory here, but this show is one I definitely won’t be missing!