Istanbul is a source of retail inspiration, with The Zorlu Center and Istiklal Street providing a contrast that echoes the city’s location.

Istanbul is always characterised as the city where East meets West. This is the place from which the Muslim Ottomans ruled an empire, but where Christians also held sway under a succession of Roman emperors. The city’s chequered past and somewhat ambivalent nature continues to this day, with almost constant references made to the metropolis’ ‘European’ and ‘Asian’ sides.

Istanbul: retail destination

Population: 14 million

Reason for visiting: The mix of old and new

Most impressive new mall: Zorlu Center

Feature of the city’s retail: Heavy emphasis on luxury

Also important: Open-air markets and The Grand Bazaar

It is the Asian side that has made much of the running as far as urban sprawl is concerned over the past decade, but across the Bosphorus Turkey-in-Europe remains the city’s commercial hub. And if you want to see new retail, it is best not to cross one of the two bridges or to take the new train that runs under the Dardanelles. Instead, just jump in one of the yellow taxis that form part of the backdrop to every journey through the city and a short ride will take you to any number of contrasting and vivid retail destinations. The recently opened Zorlu Center shopping mall probably topping the list.

Worth noting too are the open-air and spice markets found across the city. At first glance they appear to be the sort of places that retailers such as Whole Foods and Eataly have taken inspiration from.

The Zorlu Center

Multi-purpose schemes that claim to combine leisure, residential, entertainment and retail are commonplace these days. The Zorlu Center, which opened in late 2013, does fit this description however, and the approach to it is dramatic. The centre is paved and festooned with young trees and plants, all surrounded by apartments for which the only suitable adjective is luxurious.

At the core of the ground level gardens there is an architectural cube that is separated from everything else by a square moat. This is Turkey’s first Apple store and it officially opened less than a fortnight ago.

Even by the standards of Apple stores in locations such as London’s Regent Street or New York’s Fifth Avenue, this is an impressive debut. The store covers 20,000 sq ft, is arranged over two levels with identically sized footplates, and the bulk of it is subterranean with just the top part of the upper floor rising above ground level.

Ride the escalator down into either of the Zorlu Center’s underground shopping floors and the Apple store has a glass frontage that exposes its two levels in a single uninterrupted sweep. As is to be expected from a brand whose interiors are a model of consistency, what can be seen inside is pretty much the same as in any of the other 400 stores around the world.

But this is a store exterior within a mall interior that is jaw-dropping. The rest of the mall is very clearly zoned, vertically as much as horizontally. Practically, that means the sparkling open-air part of the mall, at ground level, is home to an array of designer stores, ranging from Dior to Prada, by way of Louis Vuitton. They are almost the same as anywhere else, and while they are certainly a mark of confidence in the scheme by the upper end of the market they are actually a little predictable.

The real retail interest is to be found in the two underground levels, as well as on the first floor. The first floor boasts retailers such as French electricals retailer Darty and Italian foodie destination Eataly. The latter also has a (somewhat inaccessible) ground floor presence.

Below stairs, the lower you go, the more mass-market the offers become. It’s also apparent that locally grown Turkish brands have developed and can now go head-to-head with names such as G-Star Raw, Cos and Aéropostale, all of which have taken
units. The shoe zone, found on the first of the underground levels, typifies this tendency. For example, Turkish sport shoes retailer SuperStep, with its ritzy entrance and brightly lit perimeter walls, is every bit as engaging as the nearby Nike and Adidas stores.

The Zorlu Center is the new face of Istanbul and a complex network of roads takes shoppers to its environs with relative ease, even in a city famed for the congestion of its roads where the travel metric is not how far, but rather how long? There is probably some way to go before it becomes a natural destination, but this is an indication of the way retail is headed in 21st century Istanbul.

Istiklal Street

In contrast to the Zorlu Center, Istiklal Street represents the more traditional face of Stambul retail. This 1.4km pedestrianised thoroughfare is filled with 19th century buildings and the only danger faced by the legions of shoppers is that of being run down by one of the city’s historic trams.

Istiklal Street is the heart of the Pera or Beyo˘glu district and until very recently was the main retail axis where the well-to-do who lived on the European side went to shop. Today it is an eclectic mix of everything from ageing wood-clad shopfronts, home to lingerie or Turkish delight emporia, to singular formats such as Spanish fashion retailer Mango’s H.E. menswear proposition, which exists here as a standalone shop.

Physically, the latter typifies what is done along Istiklal as it is narrow and very deep. Most of the traditional stores that used to be a feature of this street were small and did not therefore require a large frontage. For retailers such as H&M, Bershka and Turkish jeans brand and retailer Mavi, this translates to smaller than normal frontages. Many of them throw wide their doors in order to afford passers-by the chance to stare deep into their interiors.

For the retail curiosity seeker, that may be interesting in its own right, but it is the older shops that frequently yield inspiration. This is particularly the case for visual merchandisers, with the Turkish delight merchants showing how a single item can be made to work as an enticing and profitable prospect – food retailers could do worse than spend a little time here.

Away from the centre

There are, of course, other malls and retail parks across this vast metropolis and every week seems to bring the opening of a new development, in spite of the torrid times that the Turkish economy has faced recently.

Whether it’s the hyper-luxury Kanyon mall, which boasts Harvey Nichols, Jo Malone and Banana Republic among its tenant roster, or the massive Cevahir mall, which held the title of Europe’s largest shopping centre from 2005 to 2011, there is something for almost every taste and budget.

And in spite of the fact that salaries as a whole are substantially lower than in western Europe, luxury still has a strong presence.

Istanbul remains a city of contrasts but for those in search of retail novelty it is one of Europe’s – or Asia’s, depending on your point of view – more dynamic destinations.