Interview: Ataberk Kaçar
Hello Seçil, could you please tell us about yourself?
I'm someone who loves to dance until I am out of breath. I like to watch the same movie 3 times and unravel the director's mind, let the music flow through my body, and live with my passions. I am also an ambitious business woman who is stuck in the country she lives in, who feels lonely and is mentally tired, has just turned 35, has a lot of questions, a lot of things that she cannot understand or digest, who tries to learn to manage a company even though it is not taught by anyone, designs at the same time, and always competes with herself.
I am a person with many nick names such as "challenger", "judgment machine", "just a moment lady" etc. I love to work and never get tired of working. As I got older, thinking took the place of physical work, and that gives me incredible pleasure. I'm stubborn, I always have doubts, and I always keep running.
What do you do lately? Can you tell us about one of your days? Are there any developments in your life that excite you?
My biggest challenge right now is getting up at 6 am:) I wake up at 7 am every morning, I go to pilates at 8, I dance for half an hour (without exaggeration) on the days I don't go to pilates, I'm usually at the office between 10.00 and 19.00. One of the most important things for me in life is my routines, they make me feel like I'm in control.
I've been frequently dealing with the production side right now since the preparations for the new season have been intensified in the last few weeks. My biggest excitement for sure is the September product. Creating something new and thinking about every little thing down to the last detail is something I take great pleasure in.
What do you think about the future of the digital world? Do you think platforms like Instagram and TikTok will continue to grow?
I am more concerned about the dangers of too much sharing of personal lives than about the growth capacity of the digital world. As the private life is shared, the walls are gradually removed by the audience and this creates a very serious border problem and starts to give unnecessary encouragement to the audience. However, of course, when social media is used correctly, we can say that it is the most voluminous system of our age. Since I have never been interested in Tiktok, it would not be fair to say anything about thing, but I feel very lucky especially because I do a lot of business on Instagram and see the capacity from the kitchen of the business. It is a new world, a new culture, and we are the first to discover it.
You have achieved multiple successes at a young age, and you continue to do so. What helps you get back up when you're demoralized?
I don't think I've accomplished anything yet, and I've never seen what I've done as successes. I don't see myself as having completed any successful job in the areas where I know the potential to do better. There are so many things I dream about besides what we do and we have done. I think they will not be just dreams and we will achieve them as soon as possible.
Of course we make a lot of mistakes as a developing and learning brand, and in these situations, the person I am most cruel to is myself. I have to make very quick decisions in certain situations and it is always a risk. It's true that when I make the wrong decision, I get a little demoralized.
The person who shakes me out of this feeling and makes me leave is generally Sude. Then I put myself in silent mode for a while and just think. After a few days in slow motion, I pick myself back up.
You have a sincere relationship with your sister Sude, which every sister would envy. Did you always get along, or were you among those siblings who secretly argue without letting their mother learn about it and return home as if nothing had happened?
I would not describe my relationship with Sude as sincere, it would be more accurate to say that it is passionate. Since we are 10 years apart, I almost always took care of Sude, she took the place of my babies. We were the closest to each other at home, and then I moved to Istanbul when I was a teenager, and then to New York shortly after. This destroyed her so much, now I understand it better in retrospect. When I returned back to Istanbul, she moved in with me after a while and our relationship continued more passionately than ever before. We are both very dominant characters, but our styles are very different, that's why we never had a calm and sincere relationship, we always fed on passion like two lovers:) but to answer your question, there is a very secret privacy between us and I can say that it is tied in a very tight bond. I am the one who understands her best, Sude is the only person who understands me best and this will continue to be like this.
You have a brand called '10:AM Shop' that you are the founder and creative director of. When was the first foundations of your brand laid? Did you decide together with Sude, was it an initiative that you had dreamed of for a long time?
I come from the artist/curatorial discipline. So, combining pieces is the field that I'm most experienced in.
When I left the art gallery that I was the director of, it was time to do something for myself. We decided to give priority to Sude for the first few years, then 10AM was launched, and it has been going on for about 1.5 years. We decided to open a brand together of course, as we did many things together, and she was my biggest support in this process.
I guess it's always been my dream to challenge my own capacity and I'm still very excited about what I'm going to do next.
What is the motto of '10:AM Shop' for the future? Can you tell us about your DNA that makes you who you are?
The most distinctive feature of 10AM's DNA is its maneuverability.
We introduced the ''Great Reset'' campaign last August. 10AM is a brand that likes to update itself and reset when necessary and I want it to continue like this, we have much more energy to deal with dusty shelves. We are planning to launch a limited number of special products per month starting from September.
We are starting with the motto "Unexpected transformation for all of us" for the "FLY ME" jacket, which will be on sale this month in the back to school period. Although "back to school" tries to convince us that we are normalized, nothing will ever be the same again.
Let's talk a little bit about fashion. What do you think about the position of Fast Fashion in today's fashion industry? Do you think it is a factor affecting the development of the brand?
I'm not a fashion designer, I just mix materials and colors which gives me immense pleasure. Art yes but fashion no, it's not a field that I know much about. I can only say this; the world is changing very fast, perceptions are changing very fast, even in the last 2 years we have seen how fast consumer habits have changed. It is inevitable for the fashion industry to adapt to this speed and change, just like every other industry. Let's imagine that we are players in a basketball game, the seconds are important and you are on the court, those who cannot adapt to this speed can only watch the game next to the field. Even if they are very close to the field, they cannot play the game. To sum up, it's a choice, you're either in the game or you're not.
Now it's time for our last question which excites us a lot... Could you please give specific information to ALL readers about the varsity jacket, the latest member of the '10:AM Shop' family? (You may mention if sustainable materials are used, etc., it would be great if there is a visual of the collection!)
I think that there is no collection-season perception anymore in the changing world, and as I said before, there will be a new product every month on the 10AM.shop page. This month we have a representative product of the back to school which is the varsity jacket.
Even though the idea of returning back to school in our newly normalized lives may sound great, we continue to ask questions in our subconscious and we, as 10:AM, continue to underline this. We wanted to start our fleeting world of thought with a colorful product while going through a process where concepts such as returning to school, returning to life, and normalization are no longer meaningful. It looks like we'll continue to be bold in terms of colors.
In these days in which we feel that we are on the verge of a radical change, without knowing the answer to the question "What awaits us in the future?", we are ready to fly with the “FLY ME” jacket!