I had never heard of or seen Retro until my younger sister came to visit. Tucked away in a basement down an almost deserted passage it sure doesn’t scare anyone off by aggressive marketing. Three model figures dressed in true retro gear and a couple of the shop’s bags pose at the entrance in Istanbul’s Beyoglu district. That’s all the advertising the shop has and that’s why I didn’t take any notice for months.

This cave of hidden fashion treasures sits down well below street level without any windows and sports thousands of hangers tightly packed with fabulous dresses, skimpy t-shirts, well worn trousers, loads of shoes, feathers, pearls and glasses all kept in a myriad of small and large rooms. The costumers are a mixture of people who wants fancy clothing at a low price, others who want retro stuff to combine with their new designer ware and professionals looking for just the right dress for their play or movie. It’s all there, just waiting for someone to come and dig it out.

Retro is also happy to serve a cup of tea in one of their couches, well placed in the midst of it all.

RETRO, Istiklal Caddesi, Suriye Pasaji 166/c, Beyoglu, Istanbul. It’s between Odakule and Tünel Square, next to Sultanahmet Köftecisi.

My best advice to visitors looking for a hotel in Istanbul is to avoid Sultanahmet. The historic peninsula is a must in terms of sight seeing, but a disaster when it comes to restaurants and nightlife. Only tourists go there, and the food in the restaurants reflects what they think tourists want instead of what Turkey really has to offer.

Visitors are much better off by staying in Beyoglu, where the Turks go out and where the best of the night life and many of the city’s best restaurants are located. One recommended hotel is the Büyük Londra Otel with reminiscence of Istanbul’s Pera area as it was one hundred years ago.

The hotel maintains an elegant décor that must have suited very well the travellers arriving with the Orient Express. Today hotel’s pretty run down, but its location and views over the Golden Horn are well worth to consider.

The roof top bar has a splendid view and has become a favourite meeting point of Istanbul’s young and younger artists whenever they have something or somebody to celebrate.

BÜYÜK LONDRA OTEL, Mesrutiyet Caddesi 117, Beyoglu, Istanbul

Go further: Find more hotels in Istanbul here and read more about the city's many rooftop bars here.  

I found a place in Istanbul that perfectly resembles the allegedly-wilting generation of white, secular Turk, whose gaze is affixed on the West and whose heart is set on finding a new, luminiscent country out of the ashes of the Ottoman empire: Moda.

The teahouse

The name of this waterside town on Istanbul’s Asian side translates directly as 'fashion' – perhaps a cheeky reference to the days when Moda was unquestionably fashionable. Between mid-fifties and late seventies, come summertime, the Istanbullus would move to their summer houses in Moda, to join the Armenian and Greek residents of the town, and fill up the beach cafes. The night scene would enliven and young men and women would frolick around the waterbend, mimicking Farrow and Redford in The Great Gatsby.

Today, only a few of the beautiful houses by the water remain but the small, gridlined streets covered almost entirely by oak, pine and chestnut trees and the magnificient Moda pier, now converted into a piquant teahouse, are still intact.

Moda Deniz Kulübü

In the belly of the crescent that Moda is lies a private tennis club. Its middle-aged regulars with their matching tennis clothes have remained loyal to their oldies role models. Past the tennis club comes Moda Deniz Kulübü, another members-only venue with a terrific view of the sea, traditionally hosting Rotary Club charity nights or Lions Club high teas.

Wardrobe in restaurant Moda Park Lokantasi

A modest walk up from the Moda Deniz Klubu takes me over to a street filled with Greek taverns and ’gazinos’, restaurants that feature live music. Some of them look decent while others seem slightly more run down.

Nostalgic tram in Moda

To its residents, Moda must be a diamond in the rough – a safe haven from the impending city that Istanbul has become. Based on a romantic ideal of Turkey modeled on ’the West’, they shaped their surroundings to accommodate what in their view constitutes a ’Western lifestyle’: Tennis on Sundays, a walk in the park with children and a stop at Ali Usta’s famous ice-cream parlour, followed by dinner and a few drinks at a Greek tavern. And to a ’Westerner’, Moda is a nice break from the hussle of the old Istanbul.

Offering a handsome brunch over jazz in its prime garden on Sundays, Sakıp Sabancı Museum (SSM) stands out as a museum with a twist. Like most contemporary museums of art in Istanbul, SSM is supported by the Sabancı family, a regular of the Fortune 500 listings.

As the famous Atlı Kösk (Horse Mansion), housing two horse sculptures from as early as 1200s, was converted into the SSM after Hacı Ömer Sabancı’s death, the family’s collection of calligraphy and paintings have been transferred to the permanent collection.

I have visited SSM several times and found its permanent and temporary collections quite modest. Just upon leaving SSM, the breathtaking view of the Bosphorus from Emirgan, one of Istanbul’s oldest towns – a view depicted restlessly by the countless artists resting in SSM only a breath away from their muse – strikes its visitors.

After a tour of the museum, I have made a habit of walking over to Emirgan bazaar just around the corner. Walking past the Emirgan café, whose pergola has kept many an aspiring poet out of the sun, I always browse through their embarrassingly large display of puddings, desserts and borek.

Then, I pay the green grocer a visit and tell him unabashedly how fresh his produce looks. Amused and cheerful, he jokes around with the fish monger, whose ’fresh’ fish look more mortal than their counterparts in the still life paintings in SSM. During winters, chestnut vendors and bagel sellers seek refuge in the cosy warmth of the Emirgan bazaar while in the summer, the area is flooded with amateur fishermen, children with baloons and young mothers taking their buggies out for a bit of fresh Bosphorus air.

In Emirgan, one can smell, breathe and almost touch nostalgia. And, for a dose of nostalgia on canvases that you absolutely must not touch, SSM, with its luxurious summer brunches, its marbled floors and its five-star Changa restaurant is worth visiting. 

SAKIP SABANCI MUSEUM; Sakıp Sabancı Cad. No:42, Emirgan 34467, Istanbul