Ischiko is probably not a designer many of you will have come across and yet she designs exactly the sort of clothes that readers keep telling me that they can never find: clothes that are sophisticated, elegant, a bit quirky, that suit grown-up women and don’t require a perfect size-10 figure.
I first came across Ischiko when Celia Clarke, the personal shopper at Liberty, showed me one of her elegant greyish cloque evening jackets, which was given extra pizzazz by its asymmetrical fastening with a great glob of a button. I bought it, of course, and wore it often, but didn’t take undue notice of the label.
It wasn’t until Martine Wagener, one of the personal shoppers at Selfridges, tempted me with yet another Ischiko design — this time a heavenly black wool skirt embellished with black silk roses — that I thought I’d better look into the label and who lay behind it.
Ischiko is a Turkish woman in her mid-forties who designs and manufactures in Austria, and whose real name is Isik Özgür. She is obsessed with textiles and interesting textures. She is also passionate about detailing — interesting buttons are her trademark (her website, www.ischiko.com, uses buttons as navigation icons).
She has travelled a lot in the East and so it isn’t surprising that her aesthetic is similar to that of Issey Miyake and Yohji Yamamoto. If you have either of those labels in your wardrobe, you’ll that find her pieces mix effortlessly with theirs. Her label is also loved by larger women who would like to wear Vivienne Westwood but can’t fit into her clothes. Ischiko makes most of her garments in sizes that go up to 20.
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To find out more, I spoke to Mary Skinner, who discovered Ischiko’s work at a trade fair in Germany some years ago, and who now distributes her clothes.
“When I initially tracked Ischiko down she wouldn’t let me into the showroom — I was wearing a rather undistinguished label at the time and she felt I wouldn’t understand her clothes,” says Mary. “It took 12 weeks of daily phone calls before she let me in and then she could see that I did understand what she was about.”
Mary loves Ischiko’s collection because it caters to women who love fashion, who want interesting clothes but are probably over 40. “She knows that, as women get older, they get heavier in the bust and thicker in the waist, and she designs to accommodate that. But that doesn’t mean that they want to be less fashionable or less interesting.”
Her clothes have a certain metropolitan sophistication about them: you’d wear them in New York or Paris. If you’re looking to add a bit of sassiness to your winter wardrobe, I can’t think of a better label.
There’s a wonderful black velvet jacquard coat with huge embroidered buttons (£600) that would see you through until the temperatures plummet, a shiny black raincoat-cum-evening-coat (£380) and an easy-to-wear black jersey dress with a deep V-neck, long sleeves and a skirt that balloons and swirls and looks a million dollars (£230).
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It has to be said that Ischiko is fond of black. If it doesn’t do a lot for your colouring, you could tie a dazzling scarf around the neck or add terrific jewellery. And don’t forget some funky shoes — scarlet or emerald green at night would be the perfect finishing touch.
Ischiko is sold in good stores all around the country but the best selections can be found at Selfridges and Liberty in London. For other stockists ring 020-7636 0593.