New Talent Begum Cana Ozgur

Inspired by craft, a textile designer builds a bridge between realities.

- Katie Okamoto

Though not formally trained in textiles, Begüm Cana Özgür is a force in her field. Just four years after founding her Istanbul studio, she has forged collaborations with manufacturers like Spanish rug company nanimarquina while expanding the possibilities of craft production.

Özgür studied interior architecture at Bilkent University in Ankara, graduating in 2010. She then moved to Michigan to study 3D design at Cranbrook Academy of Art, where she “rediscovered” herself in fibers, drawn to the discipline’s hands-on processes. The intimacy of the work changed her relationship to production. “In design education, we’re taught to think about the user’s needs,” she explains with characteristic emphasis, “but I realized that these needs are equally valid on the production side. I began to feel closer to this side.”