It started with a speech. While holding back tears, GmbH creative director duo Benjamin Alexander Huseby and Serhat Isik – both children of Muslim immigrants – used their Sunday slot to call for a ceasefire in Gaza and the “release of all hostages, a free Palestine, and an end to the occupation.” Demands they believe should be uncontroversial. They spoke poignantly about the demonisation and dehumanisation of Muslims, the onslaught of “violent, nightmarish” imagery and participating in near-weekly demonstrations across Europe. They commented on the politically-charged cancellation of Palestinian, Jewish, Black or Brown creatives in Germany where the pair reside, and the rise of a dangerous far-right. “We should all be terrified, when Germany starts again silencing Jews and other dissenting voices,” they said. Their voices cracked, attendees gave a hand, and the show began.
Like many of the AW24 menswear collections, the crossover of cultures was key, but Huseby and Isik saw this in a new light, setting out to explore the “political and formal possibilities of fashion as a medium of intercultural exchange”. Built from a mix of AW24 and SS24 pieces, there were graphic hoodies, fluffy bomber jackets and boxy wool coats. Fitted sport tees and double-front-zip jumpers were underscored by snakeskin-look leather slacks. Cuts were subversively curved to reveal stomachs; tailoring was sleek yet slouchy. Many of the models wore hand-embroidered keffiyehs (a traditional Palestinian scarf) made in the Jerash “Gaza” refugee camp in Jordan and provided by refugee-run brand SEP. Others wore kufis and niqabs.
Calling the collection Untitled Nations, GmbH made an ardent statement against nationalism.
Photography courtesy GmbH.
