It started with a year in Karaköy.
Before there was a website, there was a neighborhood, a lot of conversations, and a problem nobody had solved.
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Chapter one
A year in Karaköy
Karaköy is Istanbul's old port and trading quarter on the Golden Horn. We spent a year there, sitting in small shops and listening. Shop owners like Fuat, who has sold secondhand clothing in Karaköy for over two decades, knew every texture, every supplier and the story behind every piece.
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Chapter two
The gap
They had decades of craft and supplier relationships that took a lifetime to build. What they did not have was a way to reach a buyer abroad. Meanwhile, shops and buyers in the US were looking for exactly what they offered, with no way to find them.
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Chapter three
The leap
So we took one. Atlasana started small, with a notebook full of names and a simple idea: tell the story of who makes each piece, and the right buyers will follow. That is where our tagline comes from. A story, and a leap of faith.
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Today
A hub for three parties
What began in one neighborhood is growing into a hub that reaches from the Grand Bazaar to Tanah Abang, connecting suppliers, sellers and buyers in the US. We still meet every supplier in person. Some things should not scale.