THE MAN AND THE BRAND
THE MAN AND THE BRANDUmit Benan was born to Turkish parents in Germany in 1980 and raised in Istanbul. As a kid in the 80s, he was bombarded with the assertive fashions and powerful masculine visions of the time, thanks to his clothing manufacturer father. As a teen in the 90s, he absorbed the contrasts and layering of the decade while growing up away from home at boarding school and university, in Switzerland and the US. Umit Benan then moved to Milan to study fashion, and soon divided his time between London and New York, alternating his academic studies with long periods in Istanbul where he learned textile techniques with his father.
In 2009 the Umit Benan menswear line was launched and was instantly recognised as the most promising brand in the Italian fashion landscape. In 2012 Umit Benan was chosen as the best international menswear line in Japan which led in 2014 to the opening of his first flagship store in Tokyo where he launched his made in Japan line ONIKI.
After having presented his fashion shows for ten years in Florence, Milan and Paris, in 2019 the designer reconfigured the Umit Benan collection as a contemporary brand distributed online that continues to expand its aesthetics through select collaborations and creative direction projects in partnership with brands that have an intimate connection to the designer’s interests and passions.
The same year, Umit Benan launched B+, a personal interpretation of the codes of the Italian sartorial tradition, for both men and women. B+ is the epitome of offbeat, genderless, seasonless luxury, every piece being a piece of art itself. The two lines, together, make up for the singularity of Umit Benan’s world, one where style and narrative feed each other and cultures merge.
UMIT BENAN B+
B+ IS AN UTMOST PERSONAL PROJECT:
The editing is strict, both in terms of shapes – trench-coats, field and safari jackets, blazers, trousers, Nehru jackets – colours and materials – noble silks, exquisite cashmeres and wools, linens, leather trimmings and details. The lines are structured yet fluid, the iconic silhouettes made supple by the tailored accuracy of the sartorial work. B+ is a selection of eternal pieces with a whiff of 80s boldness, sized in ways that allow both men and women to wear them, thus offering key items from the masculine wardrobe to women, in the right proportions, all rigorously made in Italy. True to its sartorial roots, B+ puts the wearer to the fore, suggesting personal ways of using it and a trimming down of excess in the name of quality. Owning less, but more personal, durable, timeless pieces. About the B+ brand name: the letter B was chosen considering that unmovable perfection is unattainable, while the + sign stands for the superiority of craft and quality.
