Sometimes, pure chance results in pleasant encounters. Proven by the meeting of Serhat Isik and Benjamin Alexander Huseby. The former grew up in Germany, the latter in Sweden. They met in a nightclub dancefloor thanks to some mutual friends and launched their label GmbH in May 2016. Behind the name (taken from the acronym Gesellschaft mit beschränkter Haftung)—the German equivalent of a private limited company—are two characters destined to shine. Raised in the Rhur region, Serhat Isik studied menswear at the Weißensee Academy of Art Berlin. After the label Bless, he was working on his own brand when he first met Benjamin Alexander Huseby. Huseby, who was also already involved in the fashion world, studied fine art at Chelsea College of Art in London until 1997, before becoming a freelance photographer and shooting for Dazed, The Gentlewoman, i-D and Harper's Bazaar.
Together, they created clothing inspired by nightlife yet designed as a modern day-to-day wardrobe. What started out as a rookie problem came to be an ethos. On a visit to a textile factory in Milan, the duo realised that they could not afford any of the fabrics, until the factory managers offered them their deadstock. A brilliant idea, signifying they could produce garments made of premium-quality fabric while adding sustainable touches. This approach in return enhanced their creations, ranging from PVC trousers and shirts made of technical materials, to velvet or denim pieces. Their aesthetic, halfway between streetwear and tailoring, won them a finalist place in the 2017 LVMH Prize, and promised even more beautiful collections for the future.