NEW KID ON THE BLOCK
London's uber-talented Osman is a designer in the
brilliant and iconoclastic mould of some of Britain's
greatest recent fashion stars. We catch up with him
in his Marylebone showroom. Natalie Livingstone
It is the morning after Osman Yousefzada’s
spring/summer 2012 show and the British-Afghani
designer is marvelling at the state of zen-like calm
in his New Quebec Street showroom. “I always feel
a slight anti-climax after a show,” he sighs. “So
much work goes into it and the whole thing is over
in under 15 minutes. But look at how tidy the
studio looks.”
Osman, 37, is determined to capitalise on the critical acclaim his recent collections have received. This sartorial powerhouse, who in four and a half years of creating clothes, has dressed a host of luminaries from the former Prime Minister’s wife Sarah Brown, current British First Lady Samantha Cameron, actresses Thandie Newton and Gwyneth Paltrow as well as British Vogue editor Alexandra Shulman, has now set his sights on conquering the retail markets of Paris and New York. “I’m holding a small cocktail reception during Paris Fashion Week to showcase my collection and then heading to New York for a trunk show,” he says.
Osman’s meteoric rise in the fashion industry reads like a modern day Cinderella story with a new labour twist. Born into a “conservative Muslim family” in Birmingham, where his Afghani mother ran a dressmaking business, Osman learned how to cut patterns and buy fabric before his 10th birthday. However, despite his affinity for clothes, his parents urged him to pursue a more traditional education and he studied anthropology at the School of African and Oriental Studies (SOAS) in London, followed by a masters at Jesus College Cambridge.
Academic aptitude eventually took a back seat and it was his passion for fashion that triumphed. Once Osman had set foot in Central Saint Martins to learn design and pattern cutting, there was no looking back. His first small collection caught the attention of a buyer at Browns and in 2005, while he was working at Joseph, New Look founder Tom Singh gave him £5,000 to launch his first catwalk show. The 2006 collection was bought by Selfridges. A year later, he was nominated for the prestigious Designs of Year 2007 Award, which features the best 100 designs internationally. But it was former PM’s wife Sarah Brown who put him on the national radar when she was allocated a front row seat at his autumn/winter 2010 catwalk show and made him her go-to designer for a plethora of official engagements. Last year, he was again front-page news when another political pinup, Samantha Cameron donned a floor-length, cinched Osman creation for the British Fashion Awards. As she posed next to fashion maven Victoria Beckham, it was clear who was the night’s style sensation. “For someone who can choose from the cream of the crop, it was an absolute honour for Samantha Cameron to wear one of my dresses,” Yousefzada says. “She looked absolutely amazing that night. It was the first time she had worn one of my designs and I was immeasurably proud – her waist looked so small for someone who had had a baby so recently.”
Despite such heady success, Osman remains anxious about making money, stressing the perils of an industry in which it is notoriously difficult to achieve financial success. He explains he has to lay out £70,000 upfront on producing his catwalk shows before he receives a penny in orders even from his major stockists. “I have to make a huge cash injection before getting to the point where the clothes are stocked in big department stores. I don’t want to sound negative but this is a difficult field to be in. You have to be tenacious.”
Osman’s clothes speak for themselves – slipping on one of his dresses is guaranteed to improve one’s self esteem more than years of therapy. With soft, but precision tailoring, his dresses create an optical illusion – narrowing hips and streamlining stomachs, while sensuous drapery around the arms camouflages a multitude of sins. Before sitting down to our interview, he insists I sample his wares and indeed zipping oneself (he hates buttons) into an Osman creation is a truly transformative experience.
This season, Osman has been lauded by fashion pundits for loosening up his traditional aesthetic and adding a slightly fresher, sexier element to his runway repertoire. “I wanted to keep it light, keep some of the structure but loosen it up,” he says. “They’re just pieces my chic women want to wear.”
“The Osman woman is intelligent, creative and modern,” he adds. “She has bite and an edge, but always looks effortlessly elegant. This season, I was inspired by the colours of David Hockney from his Splash series, but I wanted to punctuate this with cobalt, cherry red and ivory to loosen it up but still give the clothes a sense of gravitas.” Meanwhile, the intricate embroidery on some of the dresses is a respectful nod to his mother’s talent. “Craftsmanship is in the blood,” he says.
So what next for Yousefzada? Does he have a five-year plan of attack? “I would love to have retail spaces where women can have a true experience of what my brand is about in London, Paris and New York,” he enthuses while sipping his third cup of green tea of the day, having recently renounced coffee. “I would like to collaborate with an architect and build an amazing shop in London - somewhere I can realise the whole Osman vision. I want to do an amazing interior inspired by Italian Futurism from 1910 or design a helter-skelter with clothes hanging on it.”
Osman also has thoughts of licensing, which he understands is the real money move. “I would like to create a perfume or lipstick line for the Osman woman. I know I can make money doing that.” He also stresses that increased production is vital for the profitability and longevity of the brand. “In order for the business to have legs I need to produce more stock – more coats, jersey. The range needs to become bigger with more knitwear and daywear. Eventually I would love to do a spin-off diffusion line,” he muses. “I believe I can turn this into a proper business that really does have legs. Once I find the right person to back me I can really go gung ho. ”
With his foppish charm, immaculate eye and
steely determination, there is little doubt that
Osman is a talent likely to be on the radar from
Belgravia to Beijing over the next few years. 
