Istanbul Fashion Week has come to an end. For a new fashion week (this is only their third season), Istanbul put on quite a show, capping off the week with supermodel Alessandro Ambrosio, who flew in the night before to walk in the Koton swimwear show.

Istanbul is home to around 15 million people. It’s a vibrant, chaotic and beautiful place, and I quickly learned that getting around is not as simple as hopping on the tram, or jumping in a cab and giving your driver a street address. Directions are much more vague in Istanbul–ancient mosques, old stone doors, and even “down around the hill” are markers. So it was merely a reflection of the city, that the scene at the Taskisla Building at Istanbtul Techinical University, the venue for Istanbul Fashion Week, was a bit chaotic and difficult to navigate as well. But in spite of the chaos, or because of it, Istanbul Fashion Week was a blast. The shows were inventive, and the designers put out inspired collections.

A big thank you to ELLE Turkey and itkib Istanbul for hosting me.

I could write for days about everything I saw–both at Istanbul Fashion Week and the sites I explored in the city itself. But I won’t. Here’s the best of the rest: