Image Credit: GmbH
Although men’s fashion week has generally offered a range of comfort wear, taking inspiration from people’s current wardrobes, GmbH has taken us in a completely different direction. They offered us pure glamour and opulence. Titled “Welt am Draht” (best translated as World on a Wire), the show was inspired by a 1970s sci-fi TV show directed by Rainer Werner Fassbinder. The TV show plays around with the idea that our world exists only as a computer simulation. The Berlin-based designer duo Benjamin Huseby and Serhat Işik play around this idea, in a time where we are all living our lives through a screen.
Whilst presenting their FW21 collection with their signature dark Berlin aesthetic, the show directed by Matt Lambert and music by LABOUR featuring Khyam Allami, offered clothes which made us disconnect from reality, oozing with masculine glamour. As Benjamin said on a Zoom call, “I think we’ve now had a bit of an overload of reality; it’s important to find ways of dreaming as well.”
We saw GmbH’s typical overlapping shoulder wrapping sashes in faux fur, wool as well as vegan leather over suit jackets and coats. The leather double zip trousers were reminiscent of the Berlin club scene, where the brand was originally created. Another nod to the infamous German club life came from the jewelry produced by Nhat Vu Dang, famous for making jewelry out of plastic Barbie parts.
GmbH’s collection has strong focus on detail, such as its impeccable tailoring and cuts resembling mid-century couture. An empowering move for the QPOC brand, as Serhat says “activities that have normally been seen as the preserve of wealthy white people,” whilst mentioning skiing and cruising. With a diverse cast of models, the brand featured POC in formal suits, fighting against the prejudice that only white men can wear suits.
“It’s a very hopeful collection, in a way,” Serhat says. Whilst the days where we will all be able to go clubbing, attend weddings and go to the theatre again seem far away, they are coming. And no matter what the post-pandemic occasion is awaiting us, Benjamin Huseby and Serhat Işik have already prepared our wardrobe.
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See also: DIOR FW21 BY KIM JONES AND PETER DOIG HAD US LOOKING UP AT THE STARS
