An Interview with Christine Şenol İş ve Kadın Yıl:1 sayı:4 Kasım 2004 (Business and Women, Year 1: Issue 4: November 2004)

They are women who came to Turkey for personal reasons and who turned their potential into enterprise. Today we will explore their foreignness, entrepreneurship and working woman perspective. Our first guest is Christine Şenol, the Brave Heart of Large Sizes from the world of ready-to-wear clothing.

Our first question was how and why Christine Şenol came to Istanbul.

I was working in the Brussels Sheraton Hotel Headquarters. I was responsible for the Sheraton Hotel openings and organization. Since there was an opening in the Istanbul Sheraton, I came to Istanbul. There are 470 rooms in this hotel and our duty was to prepare breakfast for 900 people every morning. From morning to night we served our hotel guests and the people of Istanbul. At that time there were no experienced personnel who knew the hotel business. We came as a five person group including the cook, the housekeeper and the engineer. Moreover, during that period there was a strike at the Istanbul Hilton Hotel and we were immediately obliged to open all the floors of the second largest hotel in Istanbul, the Sheraton. According to the Sheraton hotel rules, my duty was to supervise the whole organization, the personnel, the training, the decoration, the supplies, and the menu. From the uniforms to the accountant, I was responsible for everything. At that time there was nothing in Turkey. We opened the hotel on 1 August 1975 and I worked 18 hours a day for six weeks. Before the opening of the hotel in May I met my dear husband, and friend for life, Petro Şenol, through a friend. If that hadn't happened, there would have been no way to meet him during that intense work period and I would have left Istanbul.

The late Dr. Petro Şenol was at that time the most famous doctor in Turkey in the ear nose and throat field. Just say tonsillectomy and Dr. Şenol was the first person to come to mind.

Then Christine tells how she met her husband : “Erol Simavi was my husband's best friend. He played the matchmaker. I had an ear problem. That's how we met. My husband probably took a liking to me.”

Christine's bright blue eyes sparkle from the memories. Before returning home, they went on a vacation and the next year they were engaged on March 3.

How did your husband ask you to marry him?

“That's a long story!”, she replies smiling. After that there were all the formalities because of her being a foreigner: “Bureaucracy, embassies, permission, doctors one after another. All those formalities and procedures to go through and the strange questions they asked my husband”.

We ask her how it feels to be a foreigner in Istanbul .

At first I was scared and started to ask weird questions to my husband like: “Can I go out in Istanbul on my own?” “Of course you can, but you're not going to”, he replied. For a woman who has the beauty of Claudia Schiffer, we understood the reason behind his answer. We ask Christine what this meant . “Yes, it took time for me to understand. But he was right. At that time in Turkey women weren't seen alone on the street and it wasn't well accepted. I could have gone out but why go out if you are going to be disturbed? Thus I didn't go and wasn't disturbed. Now there are a lot of women who go out on their own everywhere. There were no cafes at that time. There was nothing. Since there were no imports, you couldn't easily find the smallest thing you wanted.”

Before coming to Turkey, Christine thought that Istanbul would be like Cairo, Egypt.

Before coming to Istanbul, I thought it would be like Cairo but Cairo was a city full of colors. Istanbul wasn't like that. There is no color in the East. Not in the West either. So what was Istanbul? It wasn't easy but after a time you start to understand the fine details.

While living in Istanbul, Christine started to see things differently from the way we see them, with an outsider's view. Without finding what she wanted, she struggled in Istanbul but was learning to be a part of it.

Christine then tells how she got along with Turkish .

“I was speaking French with my husband. But at that time there was only one TV channel, TRT 1. I tried to learn to speak. Everyone was saying the same thing, looking at the same channel. Because I liked to speak, I could get across what I meant.”

Before coming to Istanbul where did you live and what did you do?

I'm Bavarian. I've been working since I was 17 years old. In Austria I went to a trade and apprentice school and then had three years of training in hotel management. In Bavaria, work and school are conducted together. Since there was plenty of opportunity for practice, I could do a job that that I had already practiced. Every year I went to school for two months and then I would work the rest of the time. Then I went to England and France to work and improve my language. I went back and forth between England and Germany. In Germany I worked in the Hilton and was praised a lot. Since I was thought to be successful, I was given good advice. That advice was good for my psychology.

What could I have done? If I had known that I could work professionally, I would have started from the factories. I started backwards. I always learned from the last step forward. About giving up: textile is not like other sectors. If you have a restaurant or café, you can just close your refrigerator and in two weeks dissolve your business; whereas in textiles you work with stock. You always start working three to six months in advance. Europe is now working on next summer's season. You make both financial and psychological investments for three-six months. It's really hard to stop.

What did you do during the crisis period?

First I screamed! Just when I was going to open another store, the crisis occurred. The firms that I did business with in Europe were not big enough to support me. There was the rent to pay and the fabrics. I made everything at cost. The dollar doubled. The imported bags that I said that I would have at the end of February got stuck in customs. All buying stopped! I thought I would manage for one or two months but the crisis didn't stop. I'm still amazed at how I stood on my own two feet. My only advantage was my not being big enough. I held the reins in my hands and was able to solve all the problems. I made all the decisions. It was an advantage not having a partner: when it goes well, it's the partner's contribution; when it goes bad, it's me!

What can you tell us about your production?

We make comfortable sizes for women. We extended our products range from 40-56, basic, what is called daily sizes. We always work with colors that can be combined. Since most of the fabric is Lycra, any woman can wear it comfortably. We also produce evening gowns. For years I have been a stylist and designer for my own company. Now I have a good stylist and designs. We're a great team. We are working intensively to produce better designs. We also benefit from the experience of our sales team. From our sales graphics at the end of the season, it's easy to see how much benefit we achieved from collective decisions taken as a result of good team work.

How do the women wearing your comfortable sizes dress?

At one time women were only wearing black but recently they have started to get braver. I want them to be braver and to wear colors well.

Who are your customers?

Once a customer wears one of our products, she comes back because she knows that she can find what she needs in our store. Since seventy per cent of our customers are return customers, I constantly have to provide new designs for them because I continuously have to sell the same customer different clothes without changing the line. Now women can even find blue jeans at our stores.

Do you use larger models to wear your clothes?

During the filming of our fashion shows we use normal models. For ads, we use nostalgic and more artistic photographs. It has become our symbol. When you say ‘Nostalgic Women' you think of CCC.

Do you have a workshop?

We do the cutting, ironing and sewing. Some sewing is done in other workshops. That's why the crisis was beneficial for us. First we got smaller and then we got bigger. Retail customers increased and we got new customers. At this time we are producing twelve thousand items a month. We export our own labels to Finland and Japan. A businessman in Saudi Arabia is planning to open a store and sell our products under the name of CCC. As for me, I'm not planning to open another store.

Are you superstitious?

Both yes and no! Since we have worked individually, I am thinking, “Europe should be afraid of us. I don't care”.

As a business woman what do you think of your women employees?

The women in my employ can be divided into two categories: educated and uneducated. Women are more practical decision makers than men. They can concentrate on five jobs at once. They can make a salad, talk on the phone and deal with the children at the same time. I find working women more successful. On the other hand, a man with a desk and a visiting card and two staff members, thinks that he is the general director.

As the wife of a surgeon, what do you think of plastic surgery and such procedures as botox injections?

Every age has it's own beauty. I know some women who have personalities that I admire. However, when they go through botox treatments and facelift operations, they lose their personalities.

What are your goals?

Outside of work I haven't been able to do much. Since my family lives abroad, I go to see them. I play golf and swim 1000 meters a day. Whenever I get a chance I travel. I've been to Peru, Africa, Japan and Italy. In the near future I will go to Nepal and Tibet. Later I plan to go to Cambodia, Viet Nam and Cuba.

As the founder and president of an association for German speakers and successfully continuing with her work in spite of so many duties, Business and Women Magazine, wishes this ‘brave heart' woman, who gave comfortable sizes to women, success from the depth of our hearts.

Christine Şenol is a grieving MOTHER. During an interview with Christine seven years ago, we witnessed her grief. She lost her dear son Luben in a deplorable accident. Luben was 20 years old and a very good diver. On August 23, 1997 in Bodrum, Oraklar, he dived to save a friend but unfortunately he died with his friend. Christine had lost her mother one month prior to this incident and at this troublesome time she lost her son. Living with this pain, the owner of CCC textiles, Christine Şenol, then lost her only support, her husband. Although she has experienced so much sadness and trouble, she is still standing straight and tall on her own, braving any storm that may come her way.

 

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