Inspired by portraits, miniatures and manuscripts, the sultans’ garments designed by Faruk Saraç shed light on the history of Ottoman royal dress.

First it was ‘Sari Zeybek’, or The Blond Swashbuckler, describing Atatürk’s mode of dress. Now it’s the ‘Padisahin Esvabi’ or ‘Garments of the Sultans’ collection. Leading men’s clothing designer Faruk Saraç has chosen to tell the history of our land in the language he knows best, the language of needle and thread.
‘Garments of the Sultans’ is a collection compiled by Saraç in 2000 in a book titled ‘Design in the House of Osman / Portrait of the Sultan’, financed by Türkiye Is Bank and the Ministry of Culture. Some 247 works including miniatures, manuscripts and portraits of the sultans by foreign artists from both East and West lighted the designer’s way during its lengthy preparation. The 700-piece collection consists of garments, reproduced under modern conditions, of the 36 sultans, 6 sultan-mothers and one prince who reigned during the Ottoman Empire.