The 26-dress collection was a huge success and propelled Turkish-born Kartal’s name in the UK fashion industry.
In just two years, the 41 year-old has taken part in four London Fashion Week shows and has been invited to showcase her work at New York Fashion Week in February.
She has designed for superstars including Lady Gaga, who was so impressed with one particular black lacy number, she asked Kartal to have the same dress designed in cream!
Other celebrity clients include Cheryl Cole, Tess Daly, Rebecca Adlington, Amanda Holden, Michelle Keegan, Rochelle Humes and Coleen Rooney.
And now celebrity PR agencies and boutiques from Beverly Hills are knocking on Kartal’s door keen for her to dress Hollywood stars in her stunning designs.
It’s not hard to see why her collection is in demand for the red carpet.
Kartal, whose studio is based in King Street, only uses the finest natural fabrics, including silk, crepe, laces and leather with stunning, hand-made embellishments, to create a distinctive sense of elegance and femininity – with Kartal aspiring “to give every woman who wears her prom dresses a feeling of stylish sophistication and self-confidence”.
“The dresses are very expressive and sensual for a woman’s silhouette,” she says, as she looks me up and down and tells me that I’m more than welcome to borrow a dress for upcoming events.
Kartal’s success is even more remarkable because she has achieved this in little more than two years, having only come to the UK nine years ago speaking very little English.
She said: “Vogue Fashion Night Out was my first event and naturally I was nervous. But on the night the crowd and the media loved the collection.
“The following day my dresses were all over the media, the fashion world was saying they were amazing.”
That night in October 2013 also lead to fashion bloggers and magazines taking notice of Kartal.
Soon after London Fashion Week made contact with the designer asking her to attend her first LFW show.
Kartal agreed and while preparing a new collection for LFW she was also being contacted by TV shows including Strictly Come Dancing and X Factor to design cheap prom dresses for the likes of Tess Daly and Cheryl Cole.
At Cannes Film Festival this year, she dressed actress Emma Miller among others, and back in Turkey, Kartal has been working with Hayrunnisa Gul, the Turkish president’s stylish wife.
Kartal’s designs are inspired by the environment around her including Manchester.
For her first LFW collection, she took inspiration from Manchester Town Hall, a building she describes as being sophisticated just like her own designs.
For her latest collection she was inspired by French artist James Tissot.
She said: “Sometimes an idea comes to me straightaway and other times it can take a month. For the last collection I was sat in the Turkish Airline lounge when I noticed Tissot’s paintings and straight away I found inspiration. I have to say the Turkish Airline lounge is a very inspiring space.”
Zeynep has always had a passion for designing and creating beautiful clothes, which was first discovered at the young age of 10 when she attended a local sewing course in her Turkish birthplace of Bursa, beating designers more than twice her age to win an award for her intricate skills.
After completing a degree in fashion design, she spent 19 years working in production, marketing, design and textile positions within the fashion industry.
She moved to Manchester nine years ago with her twin boys and chemical engineer husband Hamit Ozcelik, who had relocated from Istanbul with his job at food processing giant Cargill, which has its UK facility in Trafford Park. Kartal said: “My husband originally came to Manchester for six months, but then his contract was extended to three years so I decided to join him with my twin boys, who were only two at the time.”
Kartal’s first priority was to learn how to speak English so she enrolled on a two-year fashion design course at Manchester City College.
She said: “I know fashion, I knew pattern cutting and how to sew but I really wanted to improve my English.
“The course was good fun and often the other students would ask for my help.”
Upon completing the course, Kartal was even offered a teaching job at the college but she turned it down as she felt her English, although had improved, wasn’t up to teaching standards.
“I often turn down interviews on TV and radio because I think people might find it hard to understand me,” she says, but her English, I tell her, is excellent and easy to understand.
Kartal struggled to find a job in the region’s already competitive fashion scene but eventually found work with a local designer who she remained with for 18 months before her husband encouraged Kartal to launch her own business.
She said: “We were in the process of buying a house, when Hamit decided that instead of buying a large home, to buy a smaller property and use half of our money towards setting up a business.
“I said to my husband it was a huge responsibility and I wasn’t sure I would be able to do it.
“But he said to me that I can, that he had complete faith in me and that I would be very successful.”
She added: “Our plan in the beginning was to move back to Turkey. But the kids started school here and love it and Cargill offered Hamit a permanent job.
“We decided it was better for the children to stay in Manchester.
“We like it in Manchester, it’s better than London and other cities in many ways. It’s trendy, the people have been so lovely and Manchester is important for me as a designer.
“Everyone asks me why I’m still here, when am I going to move to London but no, this is where I belong.
“It’s my adopted city, my studio is in a great location and it is where I have built my business!”
While Kartal’s dresses continue to adorn the pages of fashion magazines and blogger websites, she is looking at supplying more boutiques in the UK.
She added: “My last collection was much more commercial and wearable and has led to a number of boutiques wanting to stock the designs.
“Even Harvey Nichols have been in contact.
“I think the success of my work has been great and I would like to continue to create fashion that is a hit with women from all around the world. I never thought I’d come so far so quick but the journey has been amazing.
“I’m also very lucky I have a supportive husband who always had faith in me and even now supports me in everything that I do.”
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