Ross PollardFashion & Grooming Editor Ross Pollard talks to Begum Berdan about LGBTQ+ rights backstage at Fashion Scout.
One of the things I’m most proud of with Candid Magazine is how we collectively want to see LGBTQ+ rights for all. The Candid family 100% stands with the LGBTQ+ community across the world, and so today I won’t be talking about the looks – we have the images, I will be devoting the space I have to the words of DB Berdan’s Begum Berdan backstage after their London Fashion Week show.
Begum Berdan
Begum Berdan
Begum Berdan
The situation in Turkey right now is unacceptable, there are few protections for the community and they suffer from persecution and violence. We want the community in Turkey to know they have a friend in us. When I told Rebekah Roy, our Creative Director I wanted to do this, she fixed me with a gaze and said “We must do this”.
Begum Berdan
Begum Berdan
Begum Berdan
“I just don’t like the trend, this LGBTQ+ thing being a trend, it’s not a trend.
You know how the fashion industry uses it, they try to be inclusive and dah da dah, but at the same time they’re actually using people not involving them in their lives and not doing anything about it afterwards. They’re just interested in coverage, where is the family?
Begum Berdan
Begum Berdan
Begum Berdan
When the Pride March was first banned in Turkey, we did Pride in our runway show, and we just kept continuing to keep evolving ourselves as a family and actually saying that we were a safe space.
Begum Berdan
We work with them and we included them in our life. The whole experience with DB Berdan is about having a safe space.
Begum Berdan
Begum Berdan
We say so much, when we do interviews, please hear us, please see us, and please accept us. They just see the show and they clap clap clap, but they don’t get the message, and we say it thousands of times, every time we do this we say it, they don’t understand the message, for that I want to say: see us, hear us, accept us.”