THE ULTIMATE INFLUENCER

{THE ULTIMATE INFLUENCER} Hakan Baykam

Through his tenure as president of Miami's Istituto Marangoni, Baykam is molding the next generation of fashion.

Hakan Baykam grew up straddling two different cultures. Born in Istanbul, his family moved to Padua, a small city in northeastern Italy, when he was six years old. As a child, his first impression of Italy was the “sense of beauty everywhere — literally everything from the beauty of the cities and buildings, to the way people approach life, to the sense of taste and attention to details, to the way people dress.” He came of age in the 1980s when Italian names — Versace, Armani, Dolce & Gabbana — were becoming major fashion houses. “I was always interested and attracted to the fashion world,” says Baykam. Every summer, he returned to Istanbul and Prince Edward Island where he was born just off the coast. With the Bosporous dividing the city — and the East from the West — he has fond memories of sitting down for Turkish tea on the European side and gazing out across the strait at the Asian side. “What I see in Miami is exactly what I saw in Istanbul — a bridge between two cultures, two worlds, the US and LatAm,” Baykam says of the energy and potential he found in Miami when opening Istituto Marangoni in the Design District in 2017. The prestigious Milan-based fashion school’s Miami campus marks the first location in the United States.

Baykam began his career in fashion at Benetton Sports and other brands before founding Relight Capital, a renewable energy company, with his brother, which invests in wind farms and solar projects around the globe. “I realized how much climate impacts our day to day lives and how every single action we make can have a positive effect on climate change,” he says. While overseeing the company as CEO, he began to think about how to apply sustainable practices to what he calls his “soul passion,” the fashion industry.

MINDING A MOVEMENT

At Istituto Marangoni Miami, sustainability is baked into the curriculum. Offering associates, bachelors and masters tracks, students work with ecofriendly, upcycled materials (avoiding polyester and plastics) and minimize waste by working with recycled paper instead of fabric for samples. “Sustainability is not just a trend, but a global movement,” says Baykam, noting that consumer consciousness has shifted to demand corporate responsibility with social and environmental issues. He sees this future being shaped by the next generation of leaders — like the students at Istituto Marangoni. With a strong contemporary art and architecture scene, Baykam believes Miami is poised to be a major player in fashion. “Miami has a unique opportunity. The fashion world is going through a big change where all the old models are collapsing,” says

Baykam. “In this aspect, Miami can drive the new scene with unique projects to become the new fashion frontier of the US.”

Baykam counts local label Alexis and high-end boutique The Webster as personal fashion favorites, as well as the Bazaar, owned by a friend and fellow Turkish transplant, located at Mr. C Hotel in Coconut Grove. He’s also enamored by the architecture in the Design District. “The area is the most fashionable, the most sophisticated and probably the most European in Miami,” he says. “I think there is no better spot for Marangoni to be.”

WORDS BY SHAYNE BENOWITZ