In Which Sarp Altan in Maral: En Güzel Hikayem and Leyla Yüksel in Cam Tavanlar Teach Us About Style Uniforms
HELLO PALS,
Today we’re going to talk about Style Uniforms, or wearing the same outfit (or type of outfit) every day. HOWEVER, we’re not going to analyze the most famous Style Uniform, Steve Jobs’ jeans + black turtlenecks (although I do love a black turtleneck), or talk about anyone else on this list. Instead, we’re going to look at two of our TV Pals, Sarp Altan from Maral: En Güzel Hikayem and Leyla Yüksel from Cam Tavanlar, because their Style Uniforms are more, as the kids say, #iconic.
Maral: En Güzel Hikayem (Maral: My Most Beautiful Story), is available in its original Turkish format here and somewhat abridged with English subtitles (and occasionally a different soundtrack) here. Maral Erdem (Hazal Kaya), the titular character, is a waitress at a boutique called Luna. Luna has been a fairytale world to her ever since she was a kid, and she dreams of becoming the manager one day. Meanwhile, Luna’s pastry chef, Sarp Altan (Aras Bulut İynemli), is on a mission of his own—and of course he and Maral fall in love and things get complicated and Adventures Ensue. It’s colorful and fun and has lots of good friendships and goes in an absolutely wild direction in the second season and was promptly cancelled. It is Near And Dear To My Heart.
Cam Tavanlar (Glass Ceilings, also called Love Reserved) is available with English subtitles here, and opens by stating that its main character, Leyla Yüksel (Bensu Soral), is NOT a fairytale character. Instead, she’s the unstoppable CEO of a restaurant company…until her misogynist bosses decide to replace her with A Man (Kubilay Aka). Worse yet, she has A History with said man!!! Leyla opens a competing restaurant and things get complicated and Adventures Ensue. It’s colorful and fun and Leyla has a group of BFFs I love and it was cancelled after eight episodes. It is everything I want in a Summer Show. (I also still have an episode and a half left to go, so I’m hoping nothing wildly contradictory to what I say here shows up at the end.)
Both Sarp and Leyla have distinctive Style Uniforms, which we’ll take a look at in Just a Few Minutes. But first, let’s talk about Why We Should Consider Style Uniforms:
Reduces “decision fatigue” - choosing an outfit becomes one less decision to make every day, therefore reserving your Brainpower for more important choices.
Fast and foolproof - if you know a particular combination looks good and feels comfortable, you can rely on it when you’re running late or feeling uninspired.
Saves money - limiting the variety of items means you’ll be less tempted to buy clothes that don’t fit the uniform.
Creates a BrandTM - whether it’s a first impression or the look you’ve become known for, a style uniform tells the world who you are, and you can use that to your advantage.
(There are probably more reasons than this - if you have any, list them in The Comments!)
I should also note that I’m not advocating for never wearing anything different—or even having a style uniform at all, if it’s not something that interests you. While some people do wear their uniforms every single day, others only use them for specific occasions, like work, while wearing a wider variety of things at other times. In addition, some people (@ Steve Jobs) wear IDENTICAL items all the time, while others only wear the same TYPE of item—for example, always wearing a jacket, but varying it from a blazer to a leather jacket to a utility jacket.
There’s also a lot of crossover between style uniforms and outfit formulas, which are certain combinations of pieces that the wearer can rely on, and which we’ll address in an Upcoming Post. In the meantime, this is a good overview of the differences between uniforms, formulas, and capsule wardrobes. (Full disclosure: I debated for quite a while about whether to consider Sarp and Leyla’s outfits examples of uniforms or formulas, and I think you can argue both ways.) But since this post has been in progress since January and it’s high time to actually post it, we’re going with them being Uniforms. Now, let’s Analyze them to see how two very different aesthetics and executions can both fall under the same concept.
(All screenshots in this post were taken from the official channels for Illustrative Purposes.)
SARP’S UNIFORM: LEATHER JACKET + TEE/HENLEY + JEANS + BOOTS
Top: Episodes 1, 3, 10, 6, 6 | Bottom: Episodes 8, 8, 10, 11, 12
Is this uniform the key to making good chocolate? I am convinced it is!!! Besides alternating henleys with tees and occasionally bowling shirts, Sarp’s basic uniform is Absolutely Consistent. He makes chocolate in it. He makes trouble in it. He sleeps in it and then presents his work to a group of visiting Italians. (The dress codes at this establishment baffle me.) No matter if he’s working at Luna or hanging out with his BFF or dealing with shady alliances, he’s almost always wearing this uniform—and because of this ConsistencyTM, it’s even more shocking when in Season Two he shows up wearing…………………………………….WELL, you will Just Have To Watch And Find Out!!!!
LEYLA’S UNIFORM: FASHIONABLE SUIT + FITTED TOP + HEELS
Top: Episodes 1, 1, 1, 2, 2 | Bottom: Episodes 3, 3, 4, 4, 4
Speaking of Baffling Dress Codes, are crop tops in the workplace allowed in the restaurant business? Leyla’s Style Uniform consists of a fashionable suit, a fitted (often cropped) top, heels, and usually loose hair, none of which seem practical for zooming all over the place solving various Crises, but you know what? WE SUPPORT HER. While Leyla is a lot less locked into her uniform than Sarp is—she dresses differently when she’s not working, and as the show goes on she shows more and more variety—her suit LooksTM are consistent enough that they were one of the first things I noticed about the show. It’s also important to note that while Sarp wears the Exact Same Jacket most of the time, Leyla has a much bigger closet. Because of that, her individual outfits are a lot more distinctive, can fit various levels of formality, and show off different trends while still falling under the same overall uniform formula.
WHAT DO THESE UNIFORMS SAY ABOUT SARP AND LEYLA?
Of course fictional and real-life wardrobes are put together differently—fictional characters don’t have to worry about dress codes or budgets—but I still think the way costume designers Purposely Craft a character’s LooksTM can be applied to real life as well. After all, costumes are an important way of helping to establish who a character is, what they do, how they fit into the rest of their world, and how they are (or want to be) perceived, and personal style does the same thing in real life.
For example, Sarp is Luna’s resident RebelTM, and in case the guitar riff the moment he steps through the door didn’t give that away, we constantly see him strolling through the candy-colored Fashion World looking like James Dean. (Also, he drives a motorcycle.) In contrast, Luna’s upper-level employees wear colorful, trendy, business(ish) outfits, while the waitresses and sales staff wear black-and-white uniforms. Sarp’s clothing, then, is the first indication that he doesn’t belong in Luna’s fairytale surroundings—which sets up some of the story’s conflict. In this interview (brought to us by Google Translate), Aras Bulut İynemli talks about preparing to play Sarp by working out and changing his diet, but added, “At the same time, more importantly, it was to enter Sarp's emotional world. A man who puts more than one mask on himself to survive. I worked for a long time both with the teachers and myself to prepare different versions of him.” Given what we learn about Sarp as the show goes on, I would suggest that his Style Uniform is one of those masks. It helps him give off the image of a Bad BoyTM nobody should mess with, who will do anything to defend his mom and is Definitely Not Affected By Any Childhood Emotional Trauma!!!, but also encourages people to underestimate his intelligence and what he’s really capable of—which I think is absolutely a conscious choice.
Who does NOT match the decor here??? (Episode 9) || Who is the RebelTM and who is his Nerdy-But-Loveable BFF??? (Episode 12)
On the other hand, Leyla’s preference for suits is explicitly addressed in Episode 5 of Cam Tavanlar, when her mentor Süreyya (Hatice Aslan) helps her choose an outfit for an evening event. After trying on several over-the-top dresses, Leyla finally admits, “I prefer tuxedos usually.”
Süreyya: Hmm, why do you prefer that? Did you ever consider?
Leyla: I don’t feel like myself in these dresses.
Süreyya: Who are you, Leyla? You’re a woman, right? Being a woman is not something to hide. Au contraire, something amazing to be proud of.
Leyla: No, I didn’t consider that hiding it. But…
Süreyya: What? You don’t need to be masculine to be taken seriously by men. Being taken seriously has nothing to do with the dress, trust me. It’s their problem.
As the title Glass Ceilings suggests, Leyla’s story is about a woman fighting for her place in a man’s world. Even though she’s not wearing totally masculine clothes—maybe her heels and crop tops and long hair represent the victories she’s already won—her suits are still an adaptation of menswear, instead of something distinctly feminine. Before watching this scene, I’d just figured Leyla liked her uniform, and that maybe the costume designers were leaning super-heavily into the Fashionable Suit trend, but after hearing the characters discuss it, it was clearly meant to underscore the themes of the entire story.
To find out whether Leyla ends up in a dress or a suit, You Will Just Have To Watch The Show! (Or stick around until I decide to write about the rest of her outfits.)
In the meantime: do you have a Style Uniform? If so, why, and what is it? I did at the ranch, when I wore a Western shirt + jeans + cowboy boots + hat 6-plus days a week for five months straight, and also when I worked as a stablehand (t-shirt + jeans + chore boots + layers as needed). Those uniforms were practical, and fit the image of I Am Here To WorkTM, but they also got boring—wearing anything different became an Occasion, and I’m happy to have more freedom now.
Can you wear crop tops at your workplace? Does wearing a henley equal better baking? What do you want your clothes to tell the world about who you are? Let us know in the comments.
Until next time, I remain,
YOUR PAL.