BURC AKYOL COLL 03 FALL SHOW, MADE IN DREUX

These are hard times for small, independent businesses. You may have heard, Studio Berçot, a very good historic French fashion school closed for good. They had ongoing financial issues and like so many independent structures, fell under the harsher and harsher economic reality of France. This of course resonates deeply with me because as a young independent brand, every day is a matter of life or death. Berçot was not my school but many of my seniors had been there, my partner was a student, many friends were. Among them a young girl from Dreux, like me, French with Turkish parents like me, with big dreams of Fashion, like me. She found me through friends of my parents and explained their school closing now meant she had not yet discovered how to put together a portfolio and no contractual possibility to find an internship with Parisian Maisons. We’ve been working together for several months, every Monday for one hour, guiding her in knowing herself better and shaping her work clearly. Of course, I want to help because I have been there. I also arrived to Paris, from Dreux with hopes, big dreams and resilience in my luggage. Working with her made me realize how similar our thoughts and what we experienced were. The brutality of our environment pushed us into various fields of expression because saying those things plainly was not an option. Dreux is a small town with a bad reputation. First ever extreme-right mayor of France in the 80’s due mainly to an important presence of