Apparel brands like Uniqlo, New Yorker and Selfridges are on the lookout for an opportunity to enter Turkey. New Yorker, based in Germany, is a department store chain and is one of Europe’s largest fashion businesses. Uniqlo is a Japanese fashion retailer. Selfridges is a department store chain from the UK.

Galeries Lafayette, a luxury department store in France, which will open a store on the Asiatic side, is looking at possible locations to open two more stores on the European side of Istanbul. Turkey, with its growth rate, young population and increasing per capita income, has come under constant focus of foreign brands over the last decade.

More production from big brands is moving to Turkey. Hugo Boss, Burberry, Donna Karan and Paul Smith, as well as high-street names such as Next and Marks & Spencer, all do manufacturing in Turkey. Turkey’s reputation as the go-to place for designer brands to outsource their manufacturing will remain as long as the brands don’t move to cheaper production venues in Vietnam or Bangladesh.

Istanbul fashion week could become a major fashion week, alongside Paris and Milan, within five years, precisely because it could prove the ideal location for global fashion buyers.