UMITWEARSSUIT,UMITBENAN^B+a result of his full beard and his fondness for wearing pyjamas
as daywear, he conducted an experiment: “I photographed
myself every day for 77 days while I was experiencing all
these things, with and without the beard. The change in
how people treated me was terrifying.” Scenarios ranged
from being questioned on entering his apartment block to
being asked to pay for a designer shirt before he tried it on.
The project provided Benan with the eureka moment he
had been looking for. “I said, I am going to base my first
collection on this: nothing is what it seems.”
It’s no surprise that Benan finds tranquillity in this
autobiographical space, nor that he doesn’t like the idea of
having it invaded. “I’ve never thrown a party in my home,”
he says. “I prefer two or three people max.” For friends whoUndeterred by his then inability to sketch, Benan
took courses at Parsons in New York, the Marangoni
in Milan, and Central Saint Martins in London, then
interned for Marc Jacobs and was senior assistant to
Sophie Theallet before returning to Milan, where he
had lived in his teens. In 2008, after three years of
working with Rifat Ozbek at Pollini, Benan set about
establishing his own brand – he launched, with a
subversive collection of cashmere turned inside-out,
at Pitti Immagine in 2009 and promptly won the
showcase’s prestigious Who Is On Next? award.
Italy’s fashion capital has always found a way of
pulling him back. And after living in rentals for much
of the past two decades, he was seduced by this cool nook of
the city centre into getting a mortgage and putting down
roots. “When I was 12, I dreamt about this exact space, and
when I first entered I was crying,” he reveals, puffing on his
second Romeo y Julieta cigar of the day (he used to smoke
three, until it was pointed out that his habit was costing him
in excess of €10,000 a year).
Benan is a fan of contrasts: the industrial exterior of his home,
formerly a Nike HQ, belies the cosy home-cum-studio behind
the 39-year-old’s front door. “I think this idea of contrasts comes
from Istanbul, where I grew up seeing blonde women wearing
super-sexy dresses standing next to women in burkas,” he
ponders. “I’m used to seeing two things existing side by side.”
And so a collection of lesser-known black-and-white
photographs by Albert Watson, Benan’s idol, patchworks the
central concrete wall (“I adore the guy,” says Benan, “but I don’t
want a wall of his famous photos”), along with colourful oil
paintings by the Turkish artist Yavuz Tanyeli – whose XXL
work also keeps a watchful eye over Benan’s bed on the
mezzanine floor. Nearby is a hot-pink portrait of Benan
by artist Lola Montes Schnabel, and a renowned piece by
Armenian-Turkish photojournalist Ara Güler hangs beneath
a metallic Buon Compleanno garland – a treasured memento
from the last holiday Umit shared with his best friend Andre
van Noord and his family, shortly before the model’s death.
Keepsakes and ornaments are everywhere. Silk-bristle
toothbrushes by L’Officine Universelle Buly (so obsessed is the
designer with the 200-year-old Parisian brand that since his
girlfriend, the actor Cemre Ebüzziya, introduced him to it last
year, he has brushed his teeth three times a day) sit beside
framed family photographs and towers of rare fashion books
(for inspiration only – save for the first 90 pages of Andre
Agassi’s autobiography, Benan has never read a book in his life).
It is, however, his 2008 series of framed self-portraits
that proves the most poignant element. Having experienced
racism and discrimination in salubrious parts of Milan, asRight: photographs
from Umit’s self-
portrait project, which
ultimately provided
inspiration for his
debut fashion collection.
Below, from top:
dried flowers and books
line almost every
surface; the courtyard
garden is a place to
relax; a further cluster
of Lisa Firer ceramicsTwo De Padova
chairs. Below: Benan
is surrounded by lush
greenery in his garden03-20-FOB-Interiors_1726460.indd 210 20/12/2019 09:38
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