The third Seoul Fashion Week comes to an end tomorrow. The event brought 65 South Korean designer brands together, eager to make a global name for themselves. Some 140 buyers attended the shows, among them department stores such as Lane Crawford, Harvey Nichols Hong Kong and Barney’s New York, as well as senior figures from the world of fashion journalism. “People began to recognise our fashion designers; now we need to make business out of it and that’s what we lack,” says executive director of Seoul Fashion Week, Jung Ku-Ho. “We need to have at least 10 South Korean fashion designers selling their clothes in top European retail stores.” Seoul’s 10 Soul Project, which showcases this week’s top 10 designers at pop-up shops in collaboration with popular European retailers, is a step in the right direction. But the country’s political and diplomatic crises continue to cast a shadow over the economy – something that’s also having an impact on the success of its fashion brands.

US secretary of state Rex Tillerson got the standard welcome on arrival at Ankara yesterday: the awkward meeting in the Turkish prime minister’s chintzy reception room and the obligatory photo op with president Erdogan. However, there was one part of the agenda missing: the tour around Ankara’s parliament building, which was battered during last year’s failed coup. Turkey has taken to giving dignitaries the tour – even sending newly arrived correspondents a chunk of the wreckage in the post – as if to say, “Look, this thing really happened.” Yet this is a fragile matter for the two nations and while no one doubts that the attempted coup took place, there is less agreement on who was responsible. Turkey has used Tillerson’s visit to once again demand the extradition of US-based cleric Fethullah Gulen. But a UK report this month concluded that, while followers of Gulen were involved, there’s no solid evidence to suggest that he himself masterminded the coup, and the German foreign intelligence chief has concurred. If Turkey really wants to reset US relations, it will have to live with the complexities of a key ally hosting an arch foe.