Yastik by Rifat Ozbek

Yastik is the cushion house that the fashion designer Rifat Ozbek started in 2005. After thirty years on the runway, decorating his own holiday home in southern Turkey turned his attention to interiors. With his partner Erdal Karaman he created Yastik, the Turkish word for pillow, and opened a small shop near Bodrum. Own-brand stores followed in Istanbul and Alaçatı, and the label launched in London in 2010. The Istanbul shop and head office sit at Şakayık Sokak 13/1 in Teşvikiye. Yastik cushions are made in limited editions from hand-woven ikats and suzani embroideries sourced in Central Asia and Uzbekistan. The house describes these textile traditions as telling their stories through colour and weave as much as pattern. Ozbek and Karaman recombine and rework the fabrics so that they sit in either a traditional or a modern room. A handful of lavender flowers goes into the down filling of each cushion. The inner pillow is 100 percent goose feather. For its tenth year in 2016 the brand added two scented candles, Istanbul and London, developed with the perfumer Azzi Glasser. Wholesale accounts have included CFOC and Le Bon Marché in Paris and Dwell in New York. The cushions have furnished the Amanzoe in Athens and Maca Kizi in Bodrum. Ozbek was born in Istanbul and graduated in fashion from Central Saint Martins in 1977. He launched his Ozbek label in London in 1985, and the British Fashion Council named him Designer of the Year in 1988 and again in 1992.