GmbH marked ten years with a collection that looks back at what sparked the brand in the first place, and in doing so, unearthed a largely forgotten fashion history. A century ago, Berlin was not destined to be in the shadow of Paris or Milan. In the 1920s, the city had couture houses and salons on par with any. Then the Nazi regime came to power and eradicated that community, in no small part because so many designers, tailors, and fashion workers were Jewish. Companies were seized, people exiled or executed, and Berlin’s fashion lineage was fractured.

Fashion historian Gesa Kessemeier, whose book Modestadt Berlin was published in 2025, writes of Joe Strassner, a Berlin designer who dreamed of international recognition and achieved it, his name appearing alongside Schiaparelli’s in the credits of a 1935 film. By then, Strassner was already living in exile. Everyone knows Schiaparelli. No one remembers Strassner. That question, why Berlin’s designers were erased from memory, runs through the collection and through GmbH’s anniversary.

The clothes started with GmbH archetypes: sleek sportswear that protects the body through cut. Tailoring was injected with direct references from Berlin’s couture past, including a collar from a coat by Clara Böhm, whose house operated from 1912 to 1939. Founders Benjamin Huseby and Serhat Işık visited the archive of Julia Schwarz, the only major private collector of Berlin fashion in Europe, touching a hundred years of fashion history. Select archive pieces from the 1910s through the 1960s were incorporated into the show.

Four partnerships shaped the collection. UGG returned as exclusive footwear partner, with the softness of the shoes contrasting the structured silhouettes, as if models were walking barefoot. The Otzo Clog, Shep Loafer, Zora Ballet Flat, Classic Distort Boot, and Tasman Flex were reworked with GmbH hammer studs and an industrial sheen. Berlin eyewear brand ic! berlin, celebrating 30 years, opened its archive, with styles drawn from the 1990s including the very first model. London-based CC-Steding interpreted the brief of “from scally to couture” with silver chains and GmbH’s diamond-shaped label cut from silver trays. Julia Schwarz of Berliner Chic provided invaluable archival context.

“As our minority communities face increased state repression, and the extreme right marches through our streets, GmbH will resist,” the show notes read. “We are often questioned on why GmbH is so explicitly political and lectured on how fashion should be unpolitical. This brief history lesson should be enough to negate any such argument.”

The show took place during Berlin Fashion Week as part of Intervention by Reference Studios. Check it out below: