VIEW
A MOTIF A REPEAT A PATTERN A STORY YOU CAN WEAR

BETÜL
KARAKIŞ

Art Direction & Illustrator · Istanbul

I turn places, stories and cultural details into contemporary patterns. Inspired by architecture, nature, symbols and the traces of the past.

Enter Archive ↓
The Archive
A table of surfaces
you move through.

Not a portfolio. A working archive of original patterns and textile compositions, drawn by hand, built through colour, ornament and repetition.

Yellow thistle scarf composition⤢ Enlarge
01 / 08

Thistle Scarf

Silk Composition · 2025

The ornamental scrolls, stylized florals, repeating lattice structures and botanical silhouettes reference centuries of decorative traditions, yet every element has been simplified into a modern graphic vocabulary. Historical motifs become lighter, more geometric and intentionally restrained.

Seven Hills of Istanbul illustration series⤢ Enlarge
02 / 08

Seven Hills of Istanbul

Illustration Series · 2026

Istanbul was built on seven hills, each crowned with domes and minarets that have shaped its silhouette for centuries. Here I redraw them in my own language, layering photographed monuments with the ornament that has always lived beside them: the tulip, the pomegranate, the peacock. Stone meets pattern, document meets decoration. It is less a portrait of the city than a memory of it, rebuilt through colour, line and repetition.

Pink and orange geometric cross-tile pattern⤢ Enlarge
03 / 08

Cross Tile

Geometric Repeat · 2024

A four-armed geometry drawn from tilework and stone, built on a single module. As the module repeats, the surface becomes less a grid than a pattern that breathes. The geometry is never rigid; it carries the warmth of the hand.

AI editorial image, woman in a glowing shell under the Milky Way⤢ Enlarge
04 / 08

AI-Grown Silence

AI Editorial · 2026

A speculative world built around Lemonade Dreams' Tiger and Pirana collections. Working with AI, I asked one question: if the patterns we designed came to life, what would that reality look like? The prints leave the fabric and grow into a universe of water, silence and glass. Every image is fully AI-generated; the concept and art direction are mine.

Charcoal ground olive and lavender acanthus scrollwork⤢ Enlarge
05 / 08

Acanthus Scroll

Ornamental Study · 2025

Rather than recreating the past, these patterns create a conversation between eras. They explore how ornament can evolve without losing its cultural memory, where heritage is preserved not through repetition but through transformation.

Hand-drawn fruit pattern with lemons and berries⤢ Enlarge
06 / 08

Orchard

Decorative Study · 2025

Here the orchard is not a study of nature but a language of ornament. Ripe forms, leaves and branches are simplified into a repeating rhythm. Abundance is built not through realism but through decorative memory.

Dream Beybi Dream custom decorative alphabet⤢ Enlarge
07 / 08

Dream Beybi Dream

Lettering · Collaboration · 2025

A complete decorative alphabet drawn for the baby brand Dream Beybi Dream. Every letter grows its own small world of petals, vines, seeds and creatures, turning language into illustration. The letters became prints, and the prints became pieces small enough to wear. There is a particular joy in seeing a project like this come to life on a child.

Navy micro-pattern with decorative border⤢ Enlarge
08 / 08

Bordered Field

Micro · 150cm · 2024

A field pattern framed by a border. The inner micro-repeat stays calm and dense while the edge gives the composition a frame and a point of rest. Designed at 150 cm, it reads equally as a scarf and as a fabric.

Illustration A single flower,
drawn close.
Yellow botanical thistle scarf composition
Illustration Ornament Border Scarf
Deconstruct

The craft
behind the surface.

Ornament resolves into the marks that made it. Pull it apart, let it return.

Tap to take it apart · tap again to reassemble
Pattern is memory, repeated until it becomes cloth.

Betül Karakış

Art Direction & Illustrator · Istanbul

I draw from places, stories and cultural details, transforming them into patterns for today. Each piece begins with something that catches my eye: an architectural detail, a symbol, a flower, a city, or a fragment of the past, and becomes a new visual story. Designed and drawn in Istanbul.

ISTANBUL → PARIS → ?
Where should the patterns go next?
Available for textile, art direction and editorial collaborations.
Betül Karakış © 2026 · Première Vision Paris