GmbH’s new campaign subverts Middle Eastern traditions

Following its last campaign fronted by second-generation European immigrants, Berlin-based label GmbH has released images showcasing its AW18 collection. For the collection, founders Benjamin Alexander Huseby and Serhat Isik took inspiration from their origins and two traditional Middle Eastern sports – oil wrestling and falconry – and reimagined them through a western lens.

“Our collections always explore the past, present and future of east and west which as immigrants also lies in us,” the designers told us. Shot by Huseby in a forest near the Polish border, the campaign images depict the relation between man and nature with a modern take – in this case women practising activities usually reserved for men. Entitled ‘My Beauty Offends You’, the collection is a way of embracing otherness: “(It) is an anthem against the increasing hostility we currently have been feeling, whether it’s for being brown, Muslim, gay, trans or somewhat ‘other’.”

Demonstrating just that, the images see women proudly holding falcons in high waist jeans, oversized shirt and leather jacket as well as wrestling topless with a man, something you would never see in the Middle East. By giving their own modern interpretation of traditions, the designers also responds to what is going on in the world through their clothes. “We felt there’s so much hostility and anger that we needed clothing for protection, both for the body and the soul,” they explained. “So we thought of armour – both medieval and modern forms of armour.”

It won’t be long before discovering the brand’s next chapter as the SS19 show will happen on June 19 during PFW.