The Story of Pestil Books
The year 2020 was an unprecedented time for everyone all around the world.
For us, Aslı & Naz, it was the time of long conversations over the phone. As our social lives were on an unprecedented decline as well, these weren’t talks about who went where, who wore what, who was with whom. They were conversations about the films we saw, the courses - we were taking the same design history course by coincidence — the books we were reading, and our dreams.
Flashback to the year before - 2019, the start of this rather intellectual but fun friendship. At the time, we had known each other for around 10 years but only, in 2019, at a mutual friend’s bachelorette trip, we easily and almost naturally became friends — spending 6 days together in the sea. Only to realise, a few months later browsing through an old photo album at Naz’s and finding a childhood photo of us holding hands, that it was in fact a reunion —we had been kindergarten best friends!
Naz & Aslı (aka. Little Mermaid & Esmeralda), 1997
On one of those phone calls, at the end of 2020, after a long discussion on the books that we both got that week, we found ourselves asking “Why are we not building a collection and start selling these books?”. We were immediately convinced.
It was a time in Turkey, in which imported books - especially hardcover and coffee table books — became unexpectedly very expensive, thus inaccessible to many, because of the currency crisis. We believe that we can, not only offer an alternative to these books by sourcing their second-hand versions but also find other people who share our love and passion for vintage books.
We started to collect books, find new suppliers, walk and explore the little vintage bookstores (sahaf) on the streets of Istanbul, talk to antique sellers, follow all the auctions, asking friends and family if they know anyone moving or getting rid of their books - in what they wanted to get rid of we saw gems to add to our collection.
The biggest of the questions for every brand was facing us: What would be the name of our brand? The possibilities were infinite. We wanted something that had a local touch. Pestil is an Istanbul brand, that reflects the texture, the chaos, and the historical and contemporary networks of the city. The books as witnesses of the Istanbulite lifestyle over the decades allow us to trace these networks. But we also envisioned our brand as an international one since the beginning. Books and stories know no boundaries and our brand would have a strong online presence. Hence the name had to be easily adaptable to people who don’t know Turkish. We were brainstorming for weeks and had a million ideas yet none of them were feeling right. Until one day when Aslı was in confinement at home, and we were on the phone - again - discussing potential names. At one moment, her mother came to the door to drop her some ‘pestil’ (fruit pulp sheets dried under direct sunlight; usually made with apricots and mulberries). We knew that it would be our name right that second! Not only because it is a Turkish delicacy, but also because it has a figurative meaning of being worn out, also used for things old and discarded. It was perfect for an Istanbul-based vintage bookstore — our books may look old and outdated but they are delicacies for eyes that can see and read between the lines.
As soon as we had the name - Pestil Books- the rest just followed. Our logo came almost naturally following the retro yet fun feeling we wanted to convey. The Instagram page and its tone were shaped through a perfect merger of both of our styles. It was the best aspect of creating something together - none of this would have materialised without the other!
Pestil Books was launched and published its first finds in February 2021. We began selecting carefully, imperfectly perfect books to find their way to new collections. In a few months, we started with brand collaborations. This became one of our favourite aspects of Pestil Books, curating special selections for different design and fashion brands, concept stores, and galleries. Our range of topics varies - art, design, fashion, architecture, photography, cinema, cultural heritage, crafts, wellness, gastronomy, and more.
Today, we continue on our mission to bring value to books and magazines once discarded, create a digital archive of publications from mainly the 1960s to our day, and reunite these gems with their new homes, diverting their life paths from waste to treasure and find creative and fun ways of doing these.