
One thing you might notice about Ece Şirin’s retail stores is that each one is different. Not just a counter in another location or a fresh rug. We’re talking altogether unique, based not only on the city it’s located but also on the month it opens, the clientele, and Şirin’s imagination.
Şirin’s brand, Istanbul-based Bee Goddess, is about blending the old and the new, the ancient with the modern, she says. That’s why she approaches each store opening with an open mind, designing the space to fit the jewelry she will display there as well as the aura of the geographic location.
“I’m challenging all the rules like I did when I first launched the brand,” Şirin says. “It is the opposite of McDonald’s. I want every one to be different.”
Her company opened four stores in 2021, and she has plans to open six additional outlets in 2022 across Europe. These locations include Mykonos, Greece, and the Edition Hotel in Bodrum, Turkey, in April; Monte Carlo in May; and the Peninsula hotel in Istanbul and London in July and September, respectively.

With these openings, Bee Goddess will have 13 boutiques as well as more than 40 other retail partners around the world, including Harrods and Neiman Marcus.
The four locations that opened in 2021 were two new flagship boutiques in Turkey, one in Istanbul’s Zorlu Center and a second at Yalikavak Marina in Bodrum. The other two, which opened in December, are in Istanbul’s harborside development Galataport and a shop at Raffles The Palm hotel in Dubai, United Arab Emirates.
The Zorlu Center and Bee Happy Yalikavak Marina locations are key examples of how her stores differ. The first is a daring red, boldly catching the eye with its gloss and metal accents. The Yalikavak Marina location is a soft bubble-gum rosy pink with neon signs, its entire mood like something out of an Instagram influencer’s perfect filter.
That’s a lot of growth since Şirin founded the company in 2007 as the world’s first talismanic fine jewelry brand. But Şirin says her clients are helping to build the Bee Goddess to what it is today, which she describes as “the authentic enlightened luxury brand for the 21st century.”

Şirin says she wants each store to have its own feeling and stock Bee Goddess collections that are unique to that location. She describes these stores as being “the opposite of the Industrial Age” in her desire to break the mold on retail design, admitting it is costly but worth it.
“We’re in a changing world. There don’t need to be uniforms anymore,” Şirin says.
The idea behind Bee Goddess is blending Şirin’s own journey toward understanding her spiritual power and that of her clients. Şirin brings sacred symbolism, ancient wisdom, and the goddess philosophy into her contemporary fine jewelry pieces. Think Artemis, Demeter, and other symbols, including the bee. These are all feminine heroes to her, Şirin says.
Ultimately, Şirin says she hopes her jewelry is empowering to those who wear it. She wants the people who visit her stores to feel the energy in each space, to take on that power, and to fight against anyone who might put them in a box creatively. She also hopes her retail partners feel the same way.
“The key pillars behind our success are creativity, authenticity, a commitment to our stockists and their customers’ needs, and excellent quality,” Şirin says. “We choose our retail partners very carefully, only working with the world’s top retailers and spending time and energy to nurture those relationships so that we grow together.”
Top: Bee Goddess recently opened a retail location, one of many planned throughout 2021 into 2022, at Istanbul’s Zorlu Center, creating a vision in glossy red and metallics (all photos courtesy of Bee Goddess).
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