Designer Mona-Irem Sapkur’s love of the sewing arts comes from her father Salih Kilic, a dressmaker in Istanbul. Although he died shortly after her birth, Mona-Irem grew up with his presence, his workshop becoming a sanctuary, a place rich in memories and reveries. The young child loved to caress the fabrics laid out as Salih had left them, to contemplate his collection of buttons, seeing here rubies, there diamonds or multicoloured mother-of-pearl pearls… At the age of 7, she knew how to use her father’s black Singer, wishing already to follow in his footsteps. When she grows up, Mona will create her own brand.
After studying fashion design at Lasalle College in Istanbul, she designed her first men’s collection for a European company. At the age of 21, Mona-Irem creates her first workshop in the very chic Nisantasi district of Istanbul, designs clothes for artists, success grows.
« I always wanted to make women’s clothes ». At 29, Mona-Irem starts from scratch, leaves family and friends « to write a new page of my life in Paris ».
She entered the Paris American Academy Art school in Paris and in her spare time worked in a clothing workshop producing pieces for Chanel. Entering through the back door, Mona sews, irons and delivers. « Behind the scenes of fashion, I learned all the steps involved in creating a high-end luxury piece ».
great french housesTwo years later, Mona-Irem joined the prestigious French Fashion Institute and landed an apprenticeship contract at Chanel during which she developed her know-how: giving lightness to the material.
Once she had obtained her diploma, Mona-Irem created a new company in the Paris region, a workshop which today employs 7 people, making Haute Couture, trunk show, press sample and ready-to-wear pieces for great French Houses..
What a long way from the shores of the Bosphorus. Artist, entrepreneur and hard worker, in 2017 Mona-Irem’s childhood dream took shape: combining her first names Mona and Irem, she named her brand Maison MOEM Paris.
Inspired by Parisian elegance, Japanese sophistication and the Ottoman, the designer instills a fashion that is sometimes discreet and charming, sometimes provocative and determined. Mona-Irem Sapkur invests all her know-how in the luxury women’s ready-to-wear brand Maison MOEM Paris and projects her own vision of the woman: independent and warm, mysterious and romantic, insolent and conniving.
A 100% French Arts & Crafts, and materials that are thought out, composed, and manufactured just as much by hand in a shared love for beautiful things. Maison MOEM Paris clothes dress a timeless and sophisticated woman, sometimes ambiguous, combining tradition and modernity, without ever losing comfort and femininity.
