In a nook of Dubai Mall, younger creatives collect round a turntable spinning vinyl from Bünyamin Aydin’s private assortment. The scene might be mistaken for a stylish idea retailer in London or New York, however that is Les Benjamins’ latest flagship — the place marble partitions etched with conventional patterns meet up to date streetwear, and the place Center Jap youth are discovering their cultural voice in an more and more globalized world.
Born from the artistic imaginative and prescient of Turkish-German designer Bünyamin Aydin and his Saudi spouse, Lamia AlOtaishan Aydin, Les Benjamins has emerged as greater than only a streetwear label — it’s turning into a cultural motion that’s reshaping how Center Jap youth see themselves within the up to date vogue narrative. The Istanbul-based model is crafting a language that speaks on to a technology caught between custom and modernity, whereas additionally constructing an influential roster of collaborators and supporters starting from Travis Scott to Daniel Arsham, Hugo and Nike to Apple.
“We’re not from Paris or New York or Tokyo,” Bünyamin Aydin mirrored. “However that’s what makes our story so thrilling. We wish to shine a lightweight on our area and present the world the richness of our tradition and the way various it’s.”
Bünyamin Aydin and Lamia AlOtaishan Aydin’s personal cross-cultural relationship serves as the muse for this ethos. The 2 met a number of years in the past, bonding over their shared experiences as creatives from the East and West. “It’s an ideal mix,” Bünyamin Aydin mentioned. “Lamia being Saudi and me being Turkish-German — it simply works.”
With 14 shops worldwide, 5 extra within the pipeline for 2025, and a world stockist listing of 60 retailers throughout 20 international locations, Les Benjamins’ mission to rejoice underrepresented tales from the Center East is resonating. “There wasn’t a platform to make self-expression right here cool and permit the youth to rejoice their identification,” mentioned Aydin, who based the model in 2011. “There was no model that embraced our identification — it’s all the time been a collaboration from the West with a capsule assortment within the East. With Les Benjamins, we wish to go a lot deeper.”
AlOtaishan Aydin, who met Aydin after she found the model on her personal quest for distinctive items, echoed this sentiment, noting the significance of authenticity. “The model is about offering an area for folks from our area, particularly younger youngsters, to be happy with the place they arrive from. These are our tales, they usually’re coming straight from folks like us,” she mentioned.
Les Benjamins’ newest growth, a Dubai Mall flagship that opened this summer time, is centered round storytelling. Designed by architect Dong-Ping Wong of Meals New York, the interiors characteristic stainless-steel panels etched with marble patterns impressed by Istanbul’s Hagia Sophia. “It’s Istanbul meets Dubai — a melting pot of cultures and celebration of identification, each historic and fashionable,” Aydin defined, citing his deep connection to each cities. “The house, we hope, evokes a way of nostalgic futurism.”
Aydin and AlOtaishan Aydin mentioned they aimed to create a retail expertise that goes past buying, the place guests can immerse themselves in a curated mix of vogue, artwork, music and structure. From their vibrant, community-driven occasions — suppose pizza events and rooster kebab fests — to their thoughtfully designed retail areas, the model goals to be a hub and platform for vogue and tradition fanatics to rejoice and share experiences with a definite Center Jap sensibility.
A glance from Les Benjamins’ newest assortment.
The boutique options the model’s most up-to-date collections, together with one known as “Kismet Voyage East to West,” alongside the Les Benjamins x Anuar Khalifi assortment, a collaboration with the Spanish Moroccan artist that pays homage to the Arab diaspora and the theme of immigration.
The shop additionally carries the favored Hugo collaboration, a milestone second for Aydin as a result of it was a tribute to his personal private household story, his grandparents’ journey as Turkish visitor staff who immigrated to Germany within the Sixties.
“I believe it was the primary time a German vogue home had an immigrant design a set,” he mentioned proudly. “The appears mirror the migrant expertise — from the tailor-made fits they wore, to the workwear they needed to don, and the rising Turkish hip-hop scene impressed by American troopers.”
AlOtaishan Aydin, who just lately gave start to the couple’s first baby, Zayn, has led Les Benjamins growth into new classes, together with leather-based items, ladies’s baggage, eyewear and fragrances. All of those classes mirror the model’s ethos, mentioned AlOtaishan Aydin. “It’s about illustration and celebrating our genuine identification. That’s what units us aside and what our group connects with so deeply.”
Because the model continues to increase its bodily footprint, Aydin and AlOtaishan Aydin have their sights set on new markets. “Our technique is concentrated on the Close to East, Center East, and Far East, together with the West,” Aydin mentioned.
Saudi Arabia has emerged as an more and more vital marketplace for Les Benjamins, reflecting the speedy transformation underway within the kingdom and burgeoning youth inhabitants. “Saudi is sort of a second dwelling for the model,” mentioned AlOtaishan Aydin, who grew up in Riyadh. “We’ve carried out so many occasions there and have a loyal buyer base that has been with us for the reason that early days.”
The duo additionally spends important time in Japan and South Korea, laying the groundwork for rising the model farther east. “The long-term imaginative and prescient is the Far East,” Aydin mentioned. “However we’re additionally actually enthusiastic about Saudi Arabia and open extra within the Gulf area — it’s a precedence for us to search out the fitting house to enter these markets.”