A triangular amulet with a hidden compartment, earrings shaped like Janissary-era candy, cuffs made from lace found in flea markets — these are the building blocks of Atelier Ziggy, a jewellery label quietly making a name for itself in Istanbul.
The brand is the work of designer Gizem Özçelik, whose route to jewellery was anything but straight. She studied performing arts management at Istanbul Bilgi University, spent an intensive year on painting, then headed to London to study photography at Central Saint Martins. It was in London, she says, that the first seeds of the brand were planted; by the time she returned to Istanbul she knew she wanted to make her own designs. A childhood surrounded by creativity — a photographer father, a writer mother — fed into it all, and she still handles the brand's visual identity herself.
The idea behind Atelier Ziggy is contrast: old and new, feminine and masculine, traditional and unexpected. Özçelik works with artisans in the Grand Bazaar, pairing centuries-old craft skills with clean contemporary forms. She started out sketching pieces simply because she wanted to wear them herself, having long collected independent designers' silver for the way it turned small artworks into everyday objects. Silver and satin cord defined the first collection; natural and semiprecious stones arrived in the second.
The references are thoroughly Turkish, but never costumey. The Akide pieces borrow the distinctive, irregular shape of akide candy — a sweet historically linked to the Janissaries, distributed when their pay was agreed (the name comes from the Turkish word for reaching a pact). Muska reworks the traditional protective amulet into a softened triangle with a secret compartment at the back, sized for a prayer, a wish or a private note. The Çeyiz collection — the word means trousseau — is the most personal: the Fatma earrings, named for Özçelik's grandmother, translate patterns from handmade coasters found in the trousseau her grandmother had prepared, later joined by cuffs incorporating vintage lace picked up in flea markets.
For travellers, this is a genuinely Istanbul souvenir that isn't a carpet or an evil-eye fridge magnet. Atelier Ziggy pieces are sold at the Istanbul Modern museum shop and in the boutiques of the Maçakızı and Yazz hotels, so you can pick one up while gallery-hopping on the Bosphorus or staying at either property in Bodrum.
Why it matters: the label is part of a broader wave of Turkish designers reinterpreting heritage objects — amulets, sweets, lacework — for everyday wear, and buying from them puts money directly into Grand Bazaar artisan workshops rather than mass-produced tourist trinkets. If you like jewellery with a story attached, each piece here comes with one, from Ottoman pay ceremonies to a grandmother's hope chest.
