Umit Benan Steps Back—Cautiously—Into the Fashion System

Two-and-half years ago Umit Benan held a great Fall 2016 show in Paris—and then that was apparently it. The Swedish-raised, German-born, Turkish-lineaged designer of much-loved menswear dropped out of view. Later today, cautiously, he’ll be stepping back into it. From his new Milan home and studio he’s presenting a see-now buy-now collection called God is Black (pt. 1), and serving pasta. You can see a few of the collection images here, and they’re probably already up on the Umit Benan webstore.

To get the collection you need to know where he has been. Benan said yesterday that after years of loving them, the show process started to grind him down. Plus the more responsibilities he took on as his company grew, the less he was able to engage with the process of designing. “So it felt like too much. And it felt like the people who were coming to the shows were feeling that too: I mean you guys sometimes see 10 shows a day, for a month.”

During his time out Benan underwent a course of therapy—“200 hours in total, up to 5 hours a day, intense!”—and said he rediscovered his belief in God. His reconnection with his Muslim identity sparked the journey that led to this collection. He added: “I was also inspired by Malcolm X and Martin Luther King and Tupac Shakur: African Americans who made a difference.” So perceptions of race and perception of religion—and how those perceptions become skewed into racism or religious intolerance by those doing the perceiving—are the two main notions Benan was exploring here. The result include takkes (or taqiyas) hand-knitted by Benan’s mother Hulya, as well as caftans, track suits, and Cuban shirts. His clothes remain beautiful, and as Benan said: “I’m always working to try and make conversations as I design.” It’s good to see him make a return to above-the-line fashion.