敵と取引を拒否する：GmbHの最も個人的なショー到着

Designers Benjamin Huseby and Serhat Işık are incredibly serious about what they do. That’s not to say they’re not nice guys too, but through the years, the weight of their rising status and the ever-growing expectation that each collection must be just as impactful as the last has clearly been taxing. “We’ve been trying to discover ways of finding comfort and beauty,” says Işık. “And solace.”

GmbH’s Autumn/Winter 2025 collection, presented as part of Reference Studio’s uber-cool on-schedule platform Intervention, is their second in Berlin. Their presence undoubtedly bolsters the city’s fashion scene to a global appeal, and GmbH is the jewel in the calendar’s crown – but countrywide, politics are tricky. Israel’s assault on Palestine continues to cast a dark shadow over much the region, with Donald Trump now declaring the US will “take over” Gaza and “level” it – all the while in Germany, critics of Israel’s military actions face censorship, and for migrants and refugees, speaking out can prompt threats of deportation. GmbH has always had multiculturalism at its heart (Huseby was born to a Norwegian mother and Pakistani father and grew up in rural Scandinavia, while Işık, a first-generation German of Turkish descent, was raised in the industrial Ruhr region), and has always stood firmly with their community beyond Berlin and its throbbing hot dancefloors. Here, on this chilly Sunday evening, their community were present and correct in the white chiffon-draped halls of Kantgaragen, in the city where it all began.

“I guess you could say the starting point for this particular collection was trying to find when we felt the most centred,” Huseby says thoughtfully. “When we felt like our truest selves without being distracted by the anxieties of the outside world.” One branch of this was memories of youth and how their fathers dressed, for whom putting on their ‘best clothes’ was an important act. Their ‘best clothes’ being suits. Finding stillness in tailoring might come across as a little antithetical – for many they’re perceived as rigid or oppressive. Yet, this duo are meticulous and approach their craft with reverence. There’s solace in the creation of a garment that’s designed to endure, made with intention and free from gimmicks. This isn’t the first time they’ve referenced their fathers’ dress codes; Huseby’s father’s obsession with flashy 1980s Italian fashion previously served as inspiration for the duo’s S/S18 offering. This collection wasn’t about a search for newness, but more an exercise in clarification and a search for refinement in both fashion and feeling. A meditation, in a way.

A second branch of inspiration came from the work of Gunvor Hofmo, the 20th-century modernist Norwegian poet, whose stirring poem From Another Reality provided the title for the collection, and was given a reading through speakers in a sombre interval during the show. “The search for reality ends in sickness. I was much too close to things, so I burned through them and stand on the other side where light is not divided from darkness, where there are no boundaries,” read an English translation of the poem. “Only a silence that casts me into the universe of loneliness, of incurable loneliness.” Imbued with existential dread, it captured the feeling of empathy for lives in turmoil. There’s strength in connecting with others under the same grey clouds, shaped by forces beyond anyone’s control. “The ruling class know that they are a threat. They’re trying to suffocate us, and I think that a very large group of people are feeling defeated. This is a very, very crucial pivoting point for our generation, and for the world, to have the stamina to continue fighting for better,” says Huseby. “We’re both very sensitive when it comes to our work because it’s always related to what’s going on in the world. This was the only way for us to go forward and produce a collection.”

Sharp, suave tailoring dominated the parade, flittering between modern and menacing with film noir shoulders occasionally adorned at the neck with featherlight swathes obscuring the face, or faux furs draped over the dropped shoulders. Impossibly skinny-legged trousers later appeared, matched with swaggering boxy jackets and coats, while military-inspired bombers and trench coats nodded to the label’s home in Berlin. The slogans decking knitwear sweatshirts were didactic, unmissable: ‘Refuse to trade with the enemy’, they read. “[That statement] sounds quite harsh. I want to leave it open for interpretation to people,” says Huseby. The words were in fact once uttered by Işık’s father, who adds, “the enemy can sometimes be the demons in your mind.”

For the duo, this exercise of introspection all boils down to the clothes – which are clearly fantastic – but there’s always something bigger at play when GmbH host a show. It’s in the power of the pieces, in their assertiveness and confidence that cuts through the noise elsewhere, your mind can’t help but wander towards what’s going on elsewhere, and inspire action beyond the show space’s four walls.

Huseby and Işık’s intention was to retreat home to the atelier, a space of comfort and protection, to reassess their nine years helming GmbH – but this wasn’t a ‘best of’ collection. Revisiting previously unseen looks perfected over years of discipline, the tears in the eyes of their audience proved the designers’ straightforward power to communicate through clothes. “We’ve always been supporters of not giving up on your ideas,” says Işık. “We want people to appreciate these clothes because fashion is too fast.”

Designers Benjamin Huseby and Serhat Işık are incredibly serious about what they do. That’s not to say they’re not nice guys too, but through the years, the weight of their rising status and the ever-growing expectation that each collection must be just as impactful as the last has clearly been taxing. “We’ve been trying to discover ways of finding comfort and beauty,” says Işık. “And solace.”

GmbH’s Autumn/Winter 2025 collection, presented as part of Reference Studio’s uber-cool on-schedule platform Intervention, is their second in Berlin. Their presence undoubtedly bolsters the city’s fashion scene to a global appeal, and GmbH is the jewel in the calendar’s crown – but countrywide, politics are tricky. Israel’s assault on Palestine continues to cast a dark shadow over much the region, with Donald Trump now declaring the US will “take over” Gaza and “level” it – all the while in Germany, critics of Israel’s military actions face censorship, and for migrants and refugees, speaking out can prompt threats of deportation. GmbH has always had multiculturalism at its heart (Huseby was born to a Norwegian mother and Pakistani father and grew up in rural Scandinavia, while Işık, a first-generation German of Turkish descent, was raised in the industrial Ruhr region), and has always stood firmly with their community beyond Berlin and its throbbing hot dancefloors. Here, on this chilly Sunday evening, their community were present and correct in the white chiffon-draped halls of Kantgaragen, in the city where it all began.

“I guess you could say the starting point for this particular collection was trying to find when we felt the most centred,” Huseby says thoughtfully. “When we felt like our truest selves without being distracted by the anxieties of the outside world.” One branch of this was memories of youth and how their fathers dressed, for whom putting on their ‘best clothes’ was an important act. Their ‘best clothes’ being suits. Finding stillness in tailoring might come across as a little antithetical – for many they’re perceived as rigid or oppressive. Yet, this duo are meticulous and approach their craft with reverence. There’s solace in the creation of a garment that’s designed to endure, made with intention and free from gimmicks. This isn’t the first time they’ve referenced their fathers’ dress codes; Huseby’s father’s obsession with flashy 1980s Italian fashion previously served as inspiration for the duo’s S/S18 offering. This collection wasn’t about a search for newness, but more an exercise in clarification and a search for refinement in both fashion and feeling. A meditation, in a way.

A second branch of inspiration came from the work of Gunvor Hofmo, the 20th-century modernist Norwegian poet, whose stirring poem From Another Reality provided the title for the collection, and was given a reading through speakers in a sombre interval during the show. “The search for reality ends in sickness. I was much too close to things, so I burned through them and stand on the other side where light is not divided from darkness, where there are no boundaries,” read an English translation of the poem. “Only a silence that casts me into the universe of loneliness, of incurable loneliness.” Imbued with existential dread, it captured the feeling of empathy for lives in turmoil. There’s strength in connecting with others under the same grey clouds, shaped by forces beyond anyone’s control. “The ruling class know that they are a threat. They’re trying to suffocate us, and I think that a very large group of people are feeling defeated. This is a very, very crucial pivoting point for our generation, and for the world, to have the stamina to continue fighting for better,” says Huseby. “We’re both very sensitive when it comes to our work because it’s always related to what’s going on in the world. This was the only way for us to go forward and produce a collection.”

Sharp, suave tailoring dominated the parade, flittering between modern and menacing with film noir shoulders occasionally adorned at the neck with featherlight swathes obscuring the face, or faux furs draped over the dropped shoulders. Impossibly skinny-legged trousers later appeared, matched with swaggering boxy jackets and coats, while military-inspired bombers and trench coats nodded to the label’s home in Berlin. The slogans decking knitwear sweatshirts were didactic, unmissable: ‘Refuse to trade with the enemy’, they read. “[That statement] sounds quite harsh. I want to leave it open for interpretation to people,” says Huseby. The words were in fact once uttered by Işık’s father, who adds, “the enemy can sometimes be the demons in your mind.”

For the duo, this exercise of introspection all boils down to the clothes – which are clearly fantastic – but there’s always something bigger at play when GmbH host a show. It’s in the power of the pieces, in their assertiveness and confidence that cuts through the noise elsewhere, your mind can’t help but wander towards what’s going on elsewhere, and inspire action beyond the show space’s four walls.

Huseby and Işık’s intention was to retreat home to the atelier, a space of comfort and protection, to reassess their nine years helming GmbH – but this wasn’t a ‘best of’ collection. Revisiting previously unseen looks perfected over years of discipline, the tears in the eyes of their audience proved the designers’ straightforward power to communicate through clothes. “We’ve always been supporters of not giving up on your ideas,” says Işık. “We want people to appreciate these clothes because fashion is too fast.”