The International istanbul Fashion Fair, IF, opened its doors for the 10th time. The istanbul Fashion Fair was sponsored by the IF Council, which was formed by leading associations from the Turkish ready-made apparel sector for the purpose of making istanbul a fashion center, andthe istanbul Textile and Apparel Exporters Union (iTKiB). This year's fair was attended by 357 companies. The fair was held in the istanbul CNR Expo Center on August 23-25th and hosted world-renowned fashion designers.

Minister of State, Kursad Tuzmen made opening remarks at the fair, drawing attention to the fact that this is the world's third largest exhibition, saying, "I would like to congratulate everyone who has made a contribution. Even in times of economic crisis, everyone here has joined forces to bring us to where we are today.

Although the textile and apparel sectors in neighboring countries have declined by 40%, Turkey has experienced an increase of 17%." The grand opening began with the fashion creations of the famous designer, SafakAtahan, and the fair included the fashion shows of the finalists of the 16th Young Fashion Designer Contest. The creations of designers such as Muge Ersin, Gamze Saracoglu, Mehtap Elaidi, Nejla Guvenc, Simay Bulbiil, Deniz Kaprol, Ceren Ertan, Ferya Surel, Ebru Gunay, Zeynep Mursalioglu, Giray Sepin, Yasemin Aytar, Selim Baklaci and Safak Atahan were also on display at the fair. More than 34 purchasing delegations attended the fair from Germany, the USA, Morocco, France, the UK, Spain, Italy, Japan, Egypt, Portugal, Russia, Tunisia, the UAE, Bulgaria and Romania. Ninety companies from Syria also participated in the exhibition.