In their latest collection, titled Talisman, GmbH’s overarching theme was protection. As the show notes read, “A talisman is an object that is thought to have protective powers and to bring good luck”.

To highlight this idea in the collection, one half of the design duo, Serhat Işık, drew on the memories of his grandfather who wrote mukas - protective Arabic inscriptions- for the people in his village in Turkey. This resulted in a collaboration with Syrian calligrapher Abdelrazak Shaballot, who created a visual inscription motif for some of the garments.

But the collection is also a bold exploration of Islamic dress codes and queerness.

As Benjamin Alexander Huseby- the other half of GmbH- states in an interview with i-D: “If this were a womenswear show, the idea of a kaftan with thigh-high boots would not be provocative at all, “but I think seeing a guy without trousers, and just this little sliver of skin on the upper thigh, it becomes very seductive. Islam is the religion that's most demonised for being seen as hostile towards queer people, which always negates the idea that there actually are queer Muslims, and queer people that grow up as Muslims”. 

All images from GmbH.

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