Belgrade Forest

We spent about 5 hours walking in Belgrade Forest just north of Istanbul. It is shocking that there is an enormous park just a 30 minute bus ride from our apartment where, if you go past the picnic areas near the main road, you can go a very long way without seeing anyone. It will be a real pity when they turn it into a strip of giant convention centers after they complete the third bridge and third airport.

A dam, built, the plaque said, in 1797 by order of Selim III's mother. There are amazing aquaducts running miles from the reservoirs that used to supply the city with water, though we didn't hike past them today.

There were a few weird stretches of path lined with logs; we passed what seemed to be a little loggers' tent camp at one point.

It was somehow very satisfying to be on the city metro with hard earned mud of the feet.

Istanbul Modest

Yesterday we went to Istanbul Modest Fashion week, which is being held at Haydarpaşa train station, though unfortunately not in the grand old interior. Still I have to give them credit for creativity in repurposing a train platform as a runway.

Not pictured here but our favorite brand was http://www.mimya.com.tr
Great looking kaftans and mosaic-looking prints but unforunately up close almost all were rayon and elastine, not so nice in texture to actually wear.

Unforunately modesty does not seem to imply reasonable heels.

There were some kinda Victorian-modest designs mixed in with the Islamic-oriented stuff:

 A design team (from Indonesia or Malaysia, can't remember which) takes a bow. I wonder if there is controversy about gay men designing clothes for conservative Muslims. Didn't seem to be any and the male designers seemed to be like I would expect at any other fashion show.

 And the designer of those wedding dresses in the last runway photo:

After the runway show, some designers from various countries gave demonstrations on particular ways they liked to do up their hijbabs. Here an American-Palestinian blogger demonstrates. There seemed to be a big split between the pro- and anti-fastening pin hijabis.

The festival pamphlet said something about how there was a big problem in modest fashion that it was mostly localized without much by way of global trends. I guess the dark motive behind this kind of international festival and demonstrations of various hejab-tying styles is to create a more homogenous global style so that modest fashion giants can start bringing in H&M money.

On our way to the ferry after the show we happened by another market festival, this one for products produced by prison inmates from around Turkey. It seemed that they mostly produce wares that their regions of incarceration are famous for. So Bursa inmates produce towels, Kütahya inmates produce porcelain, etc. I wasn't clear on whether purchase here (prices were excellent) would be moral because it would go to a budget to improve prisoners' quality of life, or immoral because tantamount to supporting slave labor. I got just a döner from the market, and wish I had asked what exactly prison labor's connection to the spinning meat was: do they raise animals? Butcher and process?

These dresses from a prison in the Black Sea region were a bit cheaper than those at the fashion show:

UPDATE: apparently there were protests by anti-capitalist Muslims who didn't appreciate the commodification of piety: http://www.al-monitor.com/pulse/originals/2016/05/turkey-istanbul-islamic-fashion-week-splits-conservatives.html