The fashion ARCHITECT

Osman Yousefzada is of Afghan origin,but was born in Birmingham,graduated in anthropology from Cambridge,and actually dropped out of a fashion design course at London's Central Saint Martins Art College."I had quite a conservative upbringing,so I just went wild and went out clubbing every night,before deciding I'd like to work in the fashion industry after all.So I joined Joseph in 2005,and then Tom Singh (founder       of New Look)offered me $5,000 to launch a collection and put on a show,and it took off from there."

Osman now has a highly successful label,Osman,with clothes in global "concept" shops,and on the backs of celebrities from movie stars to top politicians, wives.Therefore it's rather endearing to hear that his mum,an Afghan immigrant dressmaker,had a formative influence on him."I grew up around fashion.I would often match the brocades and threads at the haberdashers to the different materials, or buy the beading for the wedding dresses she used to make." 

So Osman an ideal candidate for the label "multi-cultural"?As his biography somewhat formally declares:"The conflict between tradition and modernity creates an interesting paradox with Yousefzada's design solutions."

"is there a conflict?"i asked him."i don't want to be seen as an "ethnic' designer'"he responded."but the roots are there.i was born in Britain,so i am like an outsider looking in.My design ethos is to create beautiful clothes that my,ethnicity, is about tying and draping being given a voice in tailoring."And there,s lots of sculptural draping,wrapping and tying in his highly structured clothes,as you can see in the iconic shot from his Autumn/winter 2010 show,which opened with four models striding onto the catwalk(ref.that versace photo of Naomi etal),in draped black jersey."The boy can cut a good dress,"commented Style.com,and in this show there was a re-take on his 2008 Little Black Dress collection,which sold in over 203 stores,and in 35 countries worldwide.
Now OSMAN had just returned from western Pakistan when we talked,and had visited the ancient site of taxila.He referred to the draping in Gandharan sculpture and the fusion he is creating of a draped dupatta,integrating it with exceptionally precise tailoring and finishing,Another seminal fusion concept evident in his new collections is a fresh take on trousers-his concept of jodhreem-a jodhpur shape blended with harem pants."But the end product is not ethnic,"he said,"it,s pure architecture.Pierre Cardin looked to ethnic shapes and appropriated them to a cleaner,more western aesthetic.iIn my case,it,s a marriage between tailoring and drapery,with Twenties and Fifties influences."Maybe because of his anthropological background,he also mentioned his interest in the costume of ancient cultures,like Japanese and Chinese,referring to their architectural elements.