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Hussein Chalayan, a Londoner of Turkish-Cypriot descent with strong cultural ties to Istanbul, often finds assumptions about the city to be wide of the mark. "It's the New York not only of Turkey but of the region," he says. "Being next to water is liberating and makes it liberal—gay and lesbian scene and all. It's a cultural soup where one minute you could feel like you are in Paris, the next Cairo, then Moscow."
Originally from the capital city of Ankara, Kocabiyikoglu and her boyfriend had been living in London but chose to return to Turkey because, she says, "I felt it was pointless to be Turkish if I was going to miss out on Istanbul again becoming a city of the world. Many things are beginning here, whereas in London it is all very developed." Her dream is to open a fashion boutique with her sister Basak, who is currently an assistant buyer at the London specialty store Browns.
Fashion—in the form of one of Turkey's oldest brands—is what lured Demet Muftuoglu, 36, back to her hometown. Muftuoglu, who wears curvy Zac Posen dresses and Christian Louboutin heels, was living in New York City when she was offered the art director position at Vakko—loosely Turkey's equivalent of Burberry. She brought New York with her, in the form of seasonal collections for Vakko by Zac Posen. "I think we have even more fun than in New York because of the Bosporus. It gives us such energy," she says.
Ozdem Gursel, 35, a partner in Tabanlioglu, a local architectual firm that collaborated on the development of Kanyon, says her firm's workload has soared to include a number of loft-style living spaces as Turkey heads toward a Western mortgage system. (In the past, economic instability meant the only people who could buy homes were those with up-front cash.) "We have an expression here which means 'Work like a donkey, live like a person,'" says Gursel. "Turks are like the Spanish; we eat late, we stay up late and we start early the next day. But we don't have their tradition of siesta. We keep going."
THERE IS NO SHORTAGE OF PLACES TO GO. Entertainment entrepreneurs Levent Buyukugur and Berk Eksioglu, of the Doors Group, compare themselves to the Costes brothers in Paris and are the pioneers behind a swanky all-day diner, a kitchenette, a host of restaurants and the outdoor nightclub and sushi bar Vogue, which has spectacular water views and is named after the one fashion glossy that isn't yet in the Turkish market ("They want to come, but we have the name," says Buyukugur). The pair recently entered into the hotel market with Ajia, a bijoux boutique hotel on the Asian side, to which the speediest access is by boat.
"Istanbul is definitely undersold," says Ozlem Onal, 37, whose family business is hotels and who has worked as the night manager at the Mercer in New York City. "American bankers are coming here. They see all the ingredients: the clubs are full every night, we have a lot of stamina, we're anxious to pack in the world of fashion, technology, entertainment, movies. First-time visitors can't imagine how European we are, although I go to Asia every day. My gym is in Asia, so I take the boat."