Ozbek
Rifat Ozbek (1953). Turkish designer, who worked in Italy with Walter Albini at the beginning of his career. He went to England in the 1970s to study architecture, which he interrupted to enrol at the St Martin’s School of Art. His first creations, commissioned by a chain of department stores, were inspired by Oriental themes. He launched his first collection in 1984. He became internationally established from the late 1980s, with a rich, imaginative, multi-ethnic style. His collections often take inspiration from art, but also from folk traditions: amongst his most famous themes are existensialism, orientalism, Capri of the 1950s, Martha Graham’s ballets, various books and films, but also ideas borrowed from street style and the “disco” look, adapted for a ready-to-wear style. In 1987 he launched the Future Ozbek range. He started working with Aeffe in 1988, which produced and distributed his designs, since when Ozbek has consolidated his popularity. He approached the 1990s with a new vision: an all-white collection inspired by the New Age, which made him one of the world champions of avant-garde fashion. He then began to experiment with video as a means of presenting his collections. In 1991 he debuted on the Milanese fashion scene; in 1994 he held a fashion show in Paris; in 1996 he designed the costumes for the opening ceremony of the Olympic Games in Atlanta, launched the perfume Ozbek, launched a range of rugs and kilims, and took part in the Biennale fashion exibition in Florence. In 1997 he made his debut in New York.
Ozbek’s most recent creations have been based on media, films, books, and English youth culture. In 1998 he acted in the film Love is the Devil, based on the life of the painter Francis Bacon.
During Winter 2002 Ozbek “went Elvis,” working in London on clothes inspired by the King, on the occasion of the release his Greatest Hits. Creations by Rifat, Julien Macdonald, Ben de Lisi, Ghost, and many others were auctioned by Sotheby’s on 5 December to raise funds in support of the Prince’s Fashion Initiative.
2003. Ozbek worked with Christopher Farr, a London-based rug-maker, and he also launched a range of perfumes for women called Ozbek by Rifat Ozbek. Was named creative director of the Pollini ready-to-wear woman collection.