Umit Benan returned to By way of Bigli with greater than only a new tackle: Spring 2026 marks a pivotal second for the model, with the opening of its flagship retailer and the full-scale debut of womenswear. “It’s future,” Benan mentioned with a smile. “I had my first house right here in 2005. In 2010 I offered a venture with Nino Cerruti on this exact same constructing.” Now supported by D Capital and having welcomed his new child son simply days earlier than the launch, the designer has come full circle, personally and professionally.
Relating to the brand new womenswear, “we would like it to journey by itself,” Benan mentioned. “It’s not concerning the spouse of our man, however a girl together with her personal character.” Benan discovered inspiration in a surfer residing in Biarritz—an athlete and muse behind the brand new ladies’s items. “I documented her life for months,” he mentioned, Her easygoing way of life formed the silhouettes: silk robes, fluid pants, terry material units, bathing fits, and nylon raincoats. The consequence learn like a cinematic tackle island residing: “Assume Level Break,” Benan added.
Menswear advanced in parallel, with added deal with matches impressed by the ladies’s line and Japanese denim. “I needed our denims to really feel extra like Kevin Costner in Yellowstone than runway,” mentioned Benan. Nonetheless, proportions retained a exact stress: cropped jackets, elastic-free piqué knits in handled silk, and anthracite grey because the grounding hue tying collectively each males’s and girls’s choices. Resortwear additionally expanded with “Paradiso,” a brand new capsule of year-round items in pale tones: banana yellow, powder pink, child blue. “Paradiso is the place I lived in Lugano. It’s additionally my favourite phrase in Italian,” Benan mentioned, revealing the tattoo etched on his arm.
The newly opened retailer, only a few steps from the showroom, mirrors this intersection of reminiscence and design. Conceived with architect Martin Brûlé, the house attracts from Benan’s childhood visits to his mom’s multi-brand store in Istanbul and his father’s fabric-scouting journeys. “It needed to really feel lived-in,” the designer mentioned. “We even serve cocktails and caviar.” Mahogany wooden, sand-toned carpets, and artworks curated by gallerist Thaddaeus Ropac (a good friend and shopper) infuse the house with the identical layered id as the garments. “What you see right here is the whole lot I absorbed between the ages of eight and 13,” Benan mentioned. “It’s my first actual reminiscence of style.”
