What to Wear in Istanbul

Istanbul dresses in every style at once. On İstiklal Avenue or in Kadıköy you'll see crop tops and ripped jeans, and a few kilometres away in Fatih most women wear a headscarf. Nobody expects visitors to blend in. What shapes your packing is the mosques.

To go inside any mosque, including Hagia Sophia, everyone needs shoulders and knees covered, and women need to cover their hair. Most mosques lend scarves and wraps at the door, but they're often damp and slip off. Bring your own light scarf and you're ready at any moment. Long trousers or a long skirt in thin cotton or linen will get you through a whole summer day without changing.

Think about your shoes differently too. You'll take them off and put them on again several times a day, so slip-on shoes save a lot of fiddling with laces on mosque steps. They still need a proper grip. The city is built on hills, the cobbles in Galata and Balat are steep, and marble pavements turn slippery in the rain.

The water changes the temperature. Even in July, the wind on a ferry deck in the evening can be cool, and from October to April it's properly cold out on the Bosphorus.

Packing list

• A light scarf or shawl (for mosques, sun and wind)
• Long, loose trousers or a skirt below the knee
• Slip-on shoes with a grippy sole
• A light jacket or jumper for the ferries
• A warm, waterproof coat from November to March
• A small umbrella
• A bag that closes, for crowded trams and the bazaars