Welcome to MersinBeat, a fashion and apparel store and brand dedicated to the poetry and beauty of Turkish culture, history, music, and the Mediterranean coast of Turkiyë.
In particular, we find our inspiration in and around the city of Mersin. But why? There are more touristic place in Turkiyë, cities that are better-known, more well-traveled by visitors from outside of the country.
Mersin is an ancient city, a vital port of trade historically and currently, to this very day. In Mersin, you can walk through bustling city blocks and find yourself standing on the ancient columned Roman road known as Soli, which once led to the port, and then take a dolmuş to the west to find yourself in a modern marina well-stocked with fast food and fast fashion, and then further on, along the shore, to the huge free trade zone with its mountains of containers.
Nestled between the Toros Mountains and the Akdeniz (Mediterranean), Mersin sits in an area that has been continuously occupied since at least 6300 BC. It has been ruled by the Hittites, Assyrians, Urartians, Persians, Seleucids, Greeks, Cilician Armenians, and, of course, the Ottoman Empire. Archaeological wonders litter this part of the Turkish coast, and lovers of history will never want to leave.
Don’t get us started on the food! Mersin is home to many unique dishes found even nowhere else in Turkiyë … Tarsus lahmacun (they’re smaller & crispier!), tantuni, künefe, cezerye, kerebiç şalgam, and so much more! It is truly a world capital of street-food, and a place where the cuisine is its own reason to return.
But what is the Mersin beat? Why name our store in this way?
The Mersin Beat is nothing to be found online … It is the moment to be found when you stand on the rocky beach and find a beautiful stone, lift it in your hand, and drop it back into the water, understanding that it will sit there for another thousand years while the city behind you lives, breathes, grows, and perhaps fades.
The beat of Mersin is the sound of the sea, lapping that shore at night, when the black curtain—as my late father-in-law called it—falls, leaving you staring at absolutely nothing, only hearing the waves, and the wind, and the traffic, until perhaps the light of a ship appears, or the yakamoz shimmering upon the surface of the water.
That is the beat we hope to capture and bring to you here.
– John