The Media Lab professor joined Rise’s “What Were You Wearing?” fashion show at the New York Stock Exchange wearing a contemporary Mor Cepken, a garment rooted in centuries of women’s memory, craftsmanship, and resistance.
Canan Dagdeviren, associate professor of media arts and sciences and director of the Conformable Decoders research group at the MIT Media Lab, walked the runway during New York Fashion Week as part of Rise’s “What Were You Wearing?” fashion show, held on the trading floor of the New York Stock Exchange.
Led by astronaut and Rise founder Amanda Nguyen, the event brought together survivors of sexual violence and allies to challenge victim-blaming and reinforce a central message: clothing is never consent.
For the event, Dagdeviren wore a contemporary interpretation of the Mor Cepken, or “Purple Guard,” created for her by designer, curator, and researcher İkbal Gülin Şenyuva Aktuğ, founder of MüzeShop.
The garment draws on a tradition associated with Yörük and Turkmen communities in Anatolia. A mother would place a purple cepken in her daughter's dowry chest with the hope that she would never need to wear it. If the daughter later experienced violence or grave injustice, she could put on the garment and enter the village square. Without speaking, she could make her suffering visible to the community and signal a need for protection.
Dagdeviren's contemporary Mor Cepken brings that history into the present through textiles, techniques, and women's craftsmanship spanning generations and regions of Türkiye. Its main body is made from purple raw silk from Hatay, handwoven from irregular silk yarn traditionally known as kamçıbaşı. Other elements documented in the garment's material atlas include Hereke-woven silk and silver brocade, pink Denizli silk peştemal, Hatay silk chiffon, traditional lace and needlework, and medallions.
The garment was brought to life through the work of women across Türkiye: İkbal Gülin Şenyuva Aktuğ led its design and collection; Fatma Deniz served as tailor, with Ayşegül Orhan as assistant tailor; Emel Duman contributed the silk chiffon weaving; Azime Yüksel created the traditional lace; and Güler Boran contributed hairpin lace and needlework. The work also incorporates antique materials associated with Denizli, Bursa, Hereke, and Kütahya.
The result is a garment in which historical materials and contemporary craftsmanship carry a story far beyond fashion. As the design documentation describes it, the Mor Cepken transforms a centuries-old means of making women's suffering visible into a contemporary symbol of solidarity and protection.