Turkish-based streetwear brand Les Benjamins Istanbul made its Milan menswear debut today. The 5-year-old venture, founded by Bunyamin Aydin, mélanges transcontinental references with pop culture icons to make hard-to-ignore tees and sweats—plus, now a more extensive wardrobe too. A street-cast group of tattooed, dyed, and pierced angrily posed young men and women wore some fine in-your-face ensembles. James Dean in a fez, Salvador Dalí with a Mohawk, and Pablo Picasso in a larger, more complicated fez were some of the graphics on a collection rich in biker jackets, drop-crotch shorts, and hoodie skirts. The clothes were fine—gear to rage against the machine in—but the presentation was spectacular.
This was because it featured five Sufi whirling dervishes Aydin had imported from Istanbul. They whirled and whirled, beautifully, like intensely rotating yogis. One of their number, Murat Kanberi, explained that their brimless high hats—or sikke—referred to tombstones. And that their pearlescent flowing skirts are called tennure—or the light of the skin. Ecstatic religious dancing is rarely seen at fashion presentations. No, he added, they don’t get dizzy. Watching Kanberi and his colleagues was dizzying, however—and a notable, unexpected highlight of the season.
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