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subscribe to style file blog via RSSDidier Ludot Welcomes Osman Yousefzada
March 5, 2009 2:45 pm
Didier Ludot, Paris’ leading vintage guru, also keeps an eye out for future vintage. To that end, he has started a tradition of mentoring rising fashion talents—past guests include Zac Posen and Alexis Mabille—by displaying selected pieces in his Palais Royal shop and hosting a cocktail party for le tout Paris to kick off fashion week. This season, Ludot welcomes 35-year-old London-based designer Osman Yousefzada, whose creations appear alongside rare pieces by French couturiers such as Dior and Mugler. We sat down with Ludot and Yousefzada to discuss the designer’s bone jewelry, Red Bull martinis, and his similarities to Cristobal Balenciaga.
Didier, how did you hear about Osman?
Didier Ludot: I am always on the lookout for a young creator with culture—it’s never just about making clothes. I heard about Osman and went to London for his show; he then came to Paris and we agreed to put on a little retrospective, which is fun for one so young.
Osman Yousefzada: And when I came here, I said, “I want to stay and sleep in the shop.” He has so many amazing things!
Osman, your label is only four years old. Can you say a word about your decision to get into fashion?
OY: I’m a Muslim boy from Birmingham [U.K.]; my background is very conservative. I attended Central Saint Martins, but then got a place in Cambridge, where I studied development economics and anthropology. My family tried to steer me to a [more conventional] job. But my mother is a dressmaker and I grew up helping her until I was 18. Young designers often jump from one thing to the next, but for me there is a red line running through [my collections], and it has to do with ideas about costume, ethnicity, and purity of line—being hard and soft but never girly. [The clothing] becomes its own sculpture.
How do these dresses convey your philosophy?
OY: For the little black dresses, it’s about using lines to put you in proportion. They are fully corseted from the front, and this one [the Isis dress from the current collection, with a panel in back] makes your bottom appear smaller. The pink baby-doll dress is made with 35 meters of fabric, with ostrich feathers around the collar and a racer back. It was inspired by Moghul jamas. Selfridges put it in the window and suddenly there was a 28-person waiting list. Someone in the Hamptons got married in it. I call the current collection Cosmic Moghul; it’s like Indian mogul miniatures meet sci-fi over Red Bull martinis. It’s all about line and structure, with a pure color palette and focus on one point, like the silver or gold thread collars. A piece is never just about one thing, it’s like a jigsaw but it’s contiguous.
What about your fledgling jewelry line?
OY: For the herringbone gold necklace with rock crystal and sapphires in white gold, I started with the idea of Art Deco. But for the “snake vertebrae” necklaces, I got the idea from a photo of an African tribesman wearing an enormous bone necklace. Then I went on eBay to source the vertebrae and used it to mold pieces in silver and gold, which I strung on a leather cord. It’s very strong and sculptural.
Didier, what about Osman’s fashion caught your eye?
DL: What I like is that he knows how to do the right thing at the right moment. His colors are sober but not sad. His clothes are easy to wear; plus they are pieces that women will want to wear in ten years—it takes a strong designer to do that in these times. That is true fashion culture. There is something of Balenciaga in his cut, but he is a boy of the moment.
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