A wide-lapeled double-breasted pantsuit in pinstriped beige displayed at Umit Benan’s atelier in southern Milan on a mannequin looked decidedly luxurious but perfectly regular at first glance.
In order to get a sense of Benan’s wondrous fashion, one needs to ask the designer to model his own pieces, filled as they are with little details that require more than one up-close inspection.
The perfect width of the pants, the right waist-cinching seams, the handcrafted buttonholes, the cozy and alluring hand of fabrics — all come to life with movement.
The Turkish Benan can easily be described as a designer who doesn’t design clothes, but rather conjures attitudes.
He is, in fact, a master tailor who knows all the tricks and secrets of the job, his fixation with the Power ‘80s is so deep that he’s able to take its aesthetic and make it current.
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Sweeping all the dust away from the most subdued menswear garb — a chocolate brown linen and wool suit, a navy-blue overshirt, the simplest striped shirt and jeans — he worked painstakingly on getting the construction tailored to perfection. Take the double construction on a collarless white shirt worn over tuxedo pants and blazer as an example.
After winning over the hearts — and wallets — of male clients, a growing cohort of female fans have fueled his decision to venture more decidedly in womenswear.
For spring, pristine shirtdresses with side slits reminiscent of early Donna Karan creations, a baby blue pajama set and the men’s double-breasted suit refit for the female body in a captivating tomato red shade paired with a tonal workwear shirt, all retained a mannish attitude without choking any feminine elan.
Denim and jerseys were also new to the Benan universe. To be sure, after recently selling a majority stake in his brand to D Capital, the investment vehicle of New Guards Group founder Davide De Giglio, Benan has big ambitions for the future of his luxe brand.
