Well, this is a first, for me at any rate. I’ve been going to shows for years (I mean: decades) and it’s the only time ever I have teared up watching one. I was always one of those people who could never imagine getting misty-eyed at a fashion show; I wasn’t sure that anyone actually could. Yet here we are, sitting on a chilly Berlin Sunday evening at GmbH, the label designed by Benjamin Huseby and Serhat Isik, and the welling up had begun. A runway review might not be the correct place for a confession, but maybe it is when it’s a runway show that’s making you confess.
It might be a little hard to understand, as you scroll through the images of Huseby and Isik’s powerful show, exactly why it could elicit such a strong response. The clothes are clearly terrific. They included a strong tailored noir-ish silhouette of leanly tailored suiting, a nimbus cloud of white gazar floating around the neck, or a swathe of ivory or black fake fur draped around the shoulders—nods to ‘glamour’ at odds with the phenomenal chunky ankle boots featuring exaggerated square toes. Oversized cabans were paired with ultra-long, lanky front-zippered leather waders. The sportif voluminous bombers with a bit of a 1980s Claude Montana vibe about them that were worn over track pants. And, towards the close of the show, a couple of sweaters came out emblazoned with the motto ‘Refuse TO TRADE WITH THE ENEMY.’ Those words, incidentally, were uttered by Isik’s father, a Turkish immigrant to Norway, and they carry an absolute charge to them, particularly right here, right now.
That’s where the heartfelt stirrings of this collection were centered: That its act of creation was so deeply rooted in the personal landscapes of Isik and Huseby, designers whose political activism is integral to what they do. With their fall 2025, there was
a drawing inwards to find the way forward; a response to the dreadful places and situations we currently find ourselves in. They created it by reconnecting with work they’d done during the lockdown and never realized; by looking at the dignity and elegance of how their own fathers dressed, often as a bulwark to difficult times or to underscore their absolute sense of self worth; and, an introspective reconnecting with the work of the 20th century modernist Norwegian poet Gunvor Hofmo, whose haunting poem From Another Reality provided the title of Huseby and Isik’s collection. (On every seat was a small booklet that set much of this out in exacting detail.)
Halfway through the show, between a soundtrack of the work of Estonian composer Arvo Part and Gorecki’s Symphony No 3 (not to mention a finale of Kate Bush’s “Under Ice”), Hofmo’s voice plaintively intoned the poem and you could feel the mood shifting in the room; a momentary focusing away from the show and out into the bigger world outside. Given the constant shockwaves coming at us, this GmbH collection felt like a mature, thoughtful, and emotionally resonant way to face where we find ourselves now; there was no paralysis brought on by fear. They themselves questioned what they’re doing, how working as designers, or making fashion, could respond to the present. Yet respond we must, and Huseby and Isik’s idea to go deep inside, regroup, and remember to figure out what to do and where to go next, was driven by sheer emotion—and was just as emotive (and inspiring) to watch.
