In Which I Recreate Sarp Yilmaz’s Style In İçerde (ft. Color Palette and Capsule Wardrobe)
HELLO PALS,
I am not a Fashion Expert, but after spending approximately 78 hours over 2-1/2 years watching my Absolute Favorite Turkish Mafia Show, I AM an expert on its characters’ A+ style. Today we’re going to look at Sarp Yilmaz and how he is the king of the Strict Color Palette, and how we can use said Color Palette to create a foolproof capsule wardrobe.
If you haven’t seen İçerde (Inside), I recommend you start immediately, because 1) it’s great and 2) each episode is 2 hours long, so it’ll take you a while (possibly 2-1/2 years) to finish. Also, 3) there will be some minor spoilers in these style guides. You can find the official YouTube channel, which includes English subtitles for the first two episodes, here. All pictures included in this article (besides the ones of Yours Truly) are screenshots from that channel used for Illustrative PurposesTM.
İçerde tells the story of Sarp Yilmaz (Çağatay Ulusoy), a policeman working undercover as a mafia man, and Mert Karadağ (Aras Bulut İynemli), a mafia man working undercover as a policeman. Sarp is trying to find his long-lost brother, who was kidnapped as a child, and Mert is trying to find his real family after growing up on the streets. I Bet You Can Tell Where This Is Headed!!!!—except you CAN’T, because there are 39 episodes’ worth of family secrets, crime and punishment, adventures at two restaurants, RomanceTM, fight scenes, and flashbacks to experience FIRST!!! 100/10 recommend this show. My favorite genre of anything is Family/Found Family, and İçerde DELIVERS.
Top Row: Episodes 3, 23 || Bottom Row: Episodes 6, 1.
Several of the characters have styles I love, and I’m planning on looking at them in Upcoming Posts, but today’s focus is on Sarp and his Extremely Limited Color Palette. Like, I have never seen (or at least never noticed) a costume design that spans so much time and so many outfits but remains so committed to Four Colors ONLY—black, army green, grey, and occasionally white.
Top Row: Episodes 1, 1, 1, 5, 3, 7 || Bottom Row: Episodes 10, 11, 20, 22, 31, 38
(While we do very occasionally see Sarp in another color, it’s always For a particular purpose—a police uniform, a hospital gown, disguising himself as a nurse or a deliveryman—and most of those outfits are blue. WHAT IS THE COLOR PSYCHOLOGY OF THIS?!?! Discuss.)
Just in case four colors weren’t limited enough, ALL of Sarp’s pants are black. I think we only ever see him in dress shoes or combat boots, and most of his casual outfits have the same formula: baggy shirt + slim pants + boots + sometimes a loose/bulky jacket. Observe!
Episodes 7, 1, 24, 11, 1, 2
I wish I had more Official Information about Sarp’s costume design, because I think wardrobes are a really interesting way to show a character’s personality, and I always like seeing in how different people (writers, actors, costume designers, set decorators, etc.) bring characters to life in different ways. But since, disappointingly, I’m still not fluent in Turkish (even after 78 hours of this show), I haven’t been able to track down any interviews with the costume designers yet. For now, my guess is that Sarp’s style is meant to make him distinctive from the other characters; give a practical, no-nonsense vibe (no time to worry about matching colors or following trends when you’re undercover), and yet still be CoolTM.
(Also, WHERE are they getting so many jackets with such long sleeves?!?! This man is 6’2”!!!!!!)
—Actually, WE MAY HAVE ANSWERS for that part, because the end credits list several sponsors for Çağatay Ulusoy and Bensu Soral’s costumes. (We’ll take a look at Bensu’s character Melek’s style soon, because it was one of the reasons I started this blog.) Other brands aren’t divided by actor, and at this point I’m not sure whether this has to do with multiple characters wearing the same brand, the actors’ level of fame, the brands’ levels of sponsorship, or other Mysterious Reasons. (If anyone has Pro Tips about Turkish filmmaking, drop them in the comments below so we can all learn our knowledge!)
Anyway, it’s time for Style Lessons From Sarp Yilmaz. We’ve already talked a little about the concept of a capsule wardrobe, which means combining a small number of items to make a large number of outfits. Sarp’s style lends itself really well to a capsule, and here’s why:
With such a limited color palette, all of his clothes are going to match. All of his shirts and coats will go with black pants and shoes, AND with each other, which means he could layer on any combination and look fine. (This is also practical when you’re running low on clean laundry, but since one of İçerde’s Surprise Product Placements is laundry detergent, surely this never happens to its characters!)
He sticks to an outfit formula. We saw above that his casual outfits are exclusively loose tops + fitted pants + boots, because all of his clothes fit into those categories, he’ll never have to worry about whether the proportions will work together visually or whether the cut of his pant legs will fit over/under his shoes—it’s all consistent. Knowing which pieces and silhouettes work together and work for you makes it easy to put outfits together in a rush, even if your wardrobe includes lots of colors.
Versatile pieces mean he’s prepared for any occasion. Because of his Sponsored TV WardrobeTM, Sarp has lots of very similar versions of the same item—look at how many green jackets or black shirts he’s wearing above—but they’re all pretty basic pieces that could be dressed up or down. Even if he just had one of each thing, he’d still be able to combine them to fit anything from working on his car, to attending a play, to having dinner with his mom, to, you know, casually brawling on a rooftop. (I’m sure that’s a Common Activity for all my pals.)
To illustrate these concepts (the capsule wardrobe, not the brawling), way back in December 2021 I grabbed a handful of casual clothes similar to Sarp’s and threw all of them on in various combinations at the speed of light until Ye Olde Phone Battery died, which in the freezing cold took about four minutes. Here are the LooksTM!
That’s three shirts, two jackets, one pair of jeans and one pair of boots creating at least ten outfits. I could layer any of the shirts and jackets on top of each other (I actually had the grey t-shirt on the whole time, which means in the middle photo of the bottom row I was wearing the entire capsule at once), and using different pieces in different ways created different looks. For example, the last two outfits use the exact same pieces, but on the left, the grey shirt is untucked and only halfway buttoned, and on the right, I tucked it in and buttoned it higher.
I should also note that while I’ve worn a few similar outfits in the past, I didn’t plan these ahead of time, and I couldn’t see how they looked as I went. That means I ended up liking some more than others, and if I was going to wear them For Real, I’d make changes like tucking in the green t-shirt in the second photo in the bottom row (unlike Sarp, I prefer a more defined waist), or not wearing so many shirts under the grey flannel in the last picture so it would be less bulky. On the other hand, I’d never worn the grey flannel with the grey t-shirt like in the middle picture on the top row, and I ended up really liking that outfit.
The point isn’t to copy every piece of someone else’s wardrobe, though—it’s to figure out what you like about their style (the colors? the silhouettes? the proportions? the fabrics? the General Aesthetic?) and use that as a starting point, but make it into something that works for you. For example, let’s start with an Actual Sarp Yilmaz OutfitTM and Subtly Transform it into a different Look. (Accessories, including vintage Mustang, unfortunately not included.)
In my first look, I just tried to match Sarp’s outfit as closely as I could. The biggest difference is in the jacket—Sarp’s is bulkier, with cuffs and a waistband, a larger collar, studs, and a painted design, while mine is a racing style with a more streamlined cut. That’s fine with me since I was focusing mostly on colors and general pieces vs. the details and silhouette, but someone else might rather focus on those elements instead.
The rest of the photos change the look from Sarp’s to my own. In the third photo, I swapped out the straight-leg chinos for skinny jeans and tied the shirt at one side for a little more waist definition; in the fourth photo, I tucked the shirt in and swapped the paddock boots for heeled booties. All of these changes affect the visual proportions—look at how much longer my legs look by the fourth photo. In the fifth photo, I rolled up the sleeves, which I think makes oversized shirts more flattering on me. While I’d feel comfortable in any one of these looks—I actually wore the middle one out to breakfast the day I took these photos—the last three feel the most like my style, instead of a “costume” based on someone else’s.
Anyway, this novel is an attempt to show my thought process in analyzing costume designs I like, and how I go from “that looks A+” to figuring out what exactly the character’s style is, the elements that define it, why I like them, and which ones I might want to incorporate into my own style. The Meticulous PlanningTM part of my brain really likes wardrobe analysis, and it’s gotten easier and more instinctive the more times I try it. If it appeals to you, too, I hope this offers some ideas that you can apply to your favorite sources of inspiration.
In the meantime: if you had a four-color wardrobe, what colors would you choose? (Mine would be black, camel, cranberry, and white.) Do you have a favorite silhouette or outfit formula? What’s your favorite classic car? Have my eyes been deceiving me for the past 2-1/2 years and is Sarp actually wearing dark navy in a couple of scenes?
Until next time, I remain
YOUR PAL.
OUTFIT DETAILS:
Leather Jacket - Meijer ca. 2017 or 2018 - also worn here, here, and here.
Utility Jacket - JC Penney ca. 2020 (Because I started this article Nearly A Year Ago, I have since replaced this jacket with a similar one from Venus, which you can see here.)
Black Jeans - AE Ne(x)t Level Super High-Waisted Jegging, bought 8/2020 - similar still available. I consistently wear a 10 X-Long at AE. Also worn here and here.
Black Chinos - American Eagle Skinny Twill ca. 2018 (?) - similar styles still available.
Paddock Boots - Ariat Heritage III Paddock, bought 12/2016 - similar (Heritage IV) still available. I have always found Ariat boots to fit true to size. Also worn here, here, and here.
Heeled Booties - Diba, ca. 2019 or 2020 - also worn here and here.
Grey Flannel Shirt - thrifted, 2010
Green T-Shirt - Target Goodfellow & Co, bought 2019 - same or similar still available. These are men’s shirts, and I purposely sized up to a large here—I also wear their size medium. This is a regular length, but they also come in tall sizes—I have one and can confirm it’s very long.
Grey T-Shirt - Target Mossimo, Many Years Old. I talked about some current Target shirts here.