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When the Trussardi family discovered Umit Benan, they must have thought they’d died and gone to heaven. How could a non-Italian with no relation to the brand understand its legacy so well? “I spoke to the family in the beginning, but now I’m just looking at the photos. I can feel it. I feel it very close to me. We have different characters, but just looking at the pictures a lot of emotions come out,” Umit told i-D backstage after the Trussardi autumn/winter 13 show. Based on the private life of Nicola Trussardi – the late Trussardi patriarch, who turned his grandfather’s glove-making business into a global fashion brand – the collection brought an element of country life into Trussardi’s travel-oriented character. There was even a greyhound on the catwalk. “He was a guy with lots of work to do. A very important man, loved by family members, and with a lot of people around him. Someone like that needs time by himself. At 5 or 6 in the morning, while everyone was sleeping, he’d go to the forest by himself. It was the only time he could find to be alone. So that was the idea: he was taking the dog for a walk. The only friend he has. It was a tribute to him,” Umit explained. From the crunchy autumnal leaves that covered the catwalk to the performance-wear-via-heritage nature of the looks, Benan’s collection was Trussardi through and through.
Text: Anders Christian Madsen
Photography: Mitchell Sams
