207LIVINGBananas aren’t indigenous to Milan, yet in Umit
Benan’s courtyard garden, in Naviglio Grande, the
Turkish fashion designer is showing off a large bunch
hanging from a 12ft plant. “I think this is the only
place in the city where they grow like this,” he grins, then
points proudly to bamboos and ferns that have reached similar
heights in the two years since he moved here and added them.
“I didn’t even know what I was doing, and look at them now!”
That Benan’s first bash at horticulture is bearing fruit will
come as no surprise to those who have watched him cultivate
his eponymous menswear brand. In fact,
it’s a neat analogy for his career in general.
Born in Germany and raised in Istanbul,
where his father ran a leading textiles
company, he may have had fashion in his
blood but it wasn’t his first ambition.
Tennis player, footballer, photographer
or actor were all, he assures me, viable
career options before, aged 18, he found
himself in his Boston University dorm
watching Tom Ford win Womenswear
Designer of the Year for Gucci at the
1999 VH1/Vogue Fashion Awards. In
that moment, he decided he would win
it himself, and set about writing a list of
people to thank in his acceptance speech.
“My room-mate thought I was f**king
crazy, but I knew I was capable of it.” >IN HIGHCONTRASTThe Milan home-cum-studio of fashion
designer Umit Benan is an ode to
juxtaposition, finds Scarlett Conlon.
Photographs by Danilo ScarpatiThe designer’s
mezzanine-floor
bedroom overlooks
the garden. Left:
handmade South
African ceramics
by Lisa FirerLeft: Umit Benan in his living
room – after years of rented
properties, this is the first house
in which he has unpacked all
of his belongings, including two
beaded heads (below), bought
at a market in Mexico. Sittings
editor: Gianluca LongoUMIT^WEARS^ KAFTAN,^UMITBENAN^ B+03-20-FOB-Interiors_1726460.indd 207 09/01/2020 13:23