Umit Benan and Ece Sukan

Since launching his men’s line in 2009, the Turkish designer Umit Benan has unexpectedly earned himself quite a few female customers—including his fiancée, the Turkish fashion writer and stylist Ece Sukan. Known on the street-style blogs for her deft play with different eras, cultures, and colors (“She makes a beautiful mess,” Benan notes), Sukan, who for nearly a decade owned Istanbul’s first high-end vintage store, has in recent years added his tailored coats and button-down shirts to her wardrobe. “I like that masculine look a lot,” she says. As, too, does Benan, who, in addition to planning a move from Milan to New York, hopes to start designing a women’s line within the year. “For me, power dressing is the most feminine look,” he says. “Because the women projecting this strong, protective image tend to be the most fragile inside.” Like any red-blooded male, Benan admits he doesn’t put much thought into his own denim-heavy style (“I’ll wear one outfit for 10 days in a row”) but says he loves a woman in a short skirt. Among his favorite looks that Sukan has put together recently is a green paillette Marc Jacobs dress, flat Balenciaga buckle boots, and a long double-breasted coat of his that flashed a little leg. “It was sexy but also aggressive—which is very attractive to men.”