Les Benjamins designer Bünyamin Aydın designed his new collection, “From Earth to Sky,” on iPad Pro with Apple Pencil Pro, and filmmaker Neels Castillon shot the brand’s Cappadocia fashion show on iPhone 18 Pro Max, Apple said in an October 14, 2026 story. The show marks 15 years of the Istanbul-based lifestyle brand and is on Apple’s @apple account beginning October 14.
Apple describes it as Aydın’s most ambitious project yet, staged in Türkiye’s Rose Valley with three giant hot-air balloons in neon green, yellow and pink floating above the runways.
Who used what
| Device | Who used it | What for |
|---|---|---|
| iPhone 17 Pro Max | Bünyamin Aydın | Photos and 4K video at 60 fps on an early 2026 research trip |
| iPad Pro with M5 and Apple Pencil Pro | Bünyamin Aydın and team | Mood boards in Freeform, sketches and balloon designs in Procreate |
| iPhone 18 Pro Max | Neels Castillon and crew | Filming the show, including from drones |
| MacBook Pro with M4 Max | Neels Castillon | Reviewing footage and making selections on location |
Three flowers, 10 looks, three balloons
The project started on a research trip to Cappadocia in early 2026. Aydın took iPad Pro and Apple Pencil Pro, and recorded the terrain on iPhone 17 Pro Max, shooting photos and 4K video at 60 fps.
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Three native flowers he found there became the heart of the collection: spiky green Echinops, flutelike pink trumpets and wild yellow tulips. According to Apple, they inspired 10 looks and three custom-built hot-air balloons.
Aydın was born in Germany and describes his upbringing as “German discipline and Turkish heart.” He sums up the collection, which mixes contemporary silhouettes with Turkish fabrics and Silk Road influences, this way: “The canvas is the West; the paint is the East.”
iPad Pro as the studio
Apple calls iPad Pro with M5 “the creative nexus for the entire project.” After each research trip, Aydın gathered photos, fabric references and early designs in Freeform, where mood boards could be shared or exported.
“Freeform allowed me to bring my team into my creative journey instead of simply giving them finished ideas,” he says.
He also leaned on multitasking. Apple says he used the iPad windowing system to work on a sketch in Procreate, check his travel photos and research local flora in Safari, while Background Tasks exported files for collaborators.
“It’s the ultimate workstation on the go,” Aydın says. “That gives me freedom.”
Designing balloons that actually fly
The balloons began as a single structure in Procreate. Aydın and his team duplicated, altered and redrew it until three final forms came out of dozens of variations.
He then worked with Pasha Balloons, which Apple calls one of Cappadocia’s hot-air balloon pioneers. “I would send my sketches to them, and they would use their engineering know-how to make sure they could actually fly,” he says. Their technical drawings went back into Procreate for review.
Color mattered as much as shape. Apple says the Ultra Retina XDR display, which uses tandem OLED technology, and True Tone helped Aydın get the saturation he wanted in any lighting.
On Apple Pencil Pro, he singles out hover. “Working with regular pen and paper feels very natural, but the hover feature on Apple Pencil Pro lets me preview every stroke before I even make it, so I can see any mistakes beforehand,” he says. “It’s like a supernatural tool.”
He also says the iPad kept up with heavy files: “We were working on high-resolution images, creating multiple layers and playing with textures. That’s usually when things start to slow down. But that never happened on iPad Pro. It felt just like working on a desktop.”
Filming the show on iPhone 18 Pro Max
French filmmaker Neels Castillon filmed across three runways, with natural light changing by the minute. Apple says the new 48MP Fusion Main camera with variable aperture let him start filming in low light and narrow the aperture as the sun came up.
Camera operators used Pro controls like the histogram and white balance to keep the look consistent across cameras. Apple credits the A20 Pro chip and improved thermal management for sustained 4K recording through the event.
“When I see something beautiful, I want to film it right away,” Castillon says.
The drone work is the most unusual part:
- Custom-built drones each carried two iPhone 18 Pro Max units, using the 48MP Fusion Ultra Wide cameras to fit the balloons into frame.
- Footage at 4K 120 fps was used for slow motion of rippling fabric.
- A slower shutter speed turned fast drone passes into motion blur.
- Castillon recorded in ProRes RAW to keep flexibility for color grading.
He also shot stills on the Fusion Main camera, using the texture and grain controls in Photographic Styles 3. On location, he reviewed footage on MacBook Pro with M4 Max, whose nano-texture display helped cut glare from the sun.
“I’m a huge nerd for color, and the tones are really accurate on iPad Pro,” he says.
An homage to Barış Manço
The show opened with a Turkish caftan and a tree branch representing Anatolia, an homage to Turkish rock icon Barış Manço. Apple’s subtitle describes the collection as a mix of Turkish heritage, 1970s rock ‘n’ roll influences and futurism.
“I see my role as that of a translator and a bridge between East and West,” Aydın says. “I hope this project makes Turkish people proud.”
Apple’s full story, with more photos from the show, is in its feature on Bünyamin Aydın’s “From Earth to Sky” collection.
