You can spot an Ozwald Boateng clad man from a mile off. He’ll probably be wearing a very fitted suit in colours so brazenly nonconformist that you wonder how the designer ever made it onto stuffy Savile Row. Boateng’s red carpet clients include Will Smith, Laurence Fishburne, Jamie Foxx, Samuel L. Jackson and Mick Jagger. As if that wasn’t enough, the designer known as the “Peacock” of that exclusive strip of road, is set to conquer the Middle East, starting with his landmark outlet at Harvey Nichols in Dubai’s Mall of the Emirates.
As one of the youngest and freshest faces on the Row, 39-year-old Boateng brings an international flavour to men’s tailor-made and bespoke suits. Born in the UK in 1968, but from Ghanaian parents, his comfort with striking colours like bright fuchsia is his trademark. This should go down well here as our people have never been shy of sporting colourful and less restrictive designs. Undoubtedly, Boateng brought life and vigour to men’s fashion, even in some cases, eclipsing some design gods like Armani and Boss. Boateng raised the stakes and took the concept of ‘funky’ up a notch or two. Consequently, in the world of expensive menswear, London can now rival Paris, New York and Milan. In 1994, he became one of the first British tailors to put on a fashion show.
Boateng almost didn’t make it into fashion design. Though the son of a seamstress, he showed more interest in science as a teenager before love came to change all that. At age 16, while studying computer science at a local college, he was asked by his girlfriend to come up with some designs for the college fashion show. With a little prodding and some instructions, he came up with some wearable outfits. From that moment he found his calling and began creating his own clothes. His styles caught on and he changed course. Boateng the designer was born and by the time he completed his degree, his designs were selling at shops on the trendy King’s Road. In 1994, he opened his own place on Portobello Road which was fast becoming the hang out for style icons and fashionistas looking for something different that what the high streets and Knightsbridge had to offer. It was only in 1997, that he ventured just off Savile Row bringing a certain street credibility to a history of tailoring seeped in tradition. Apparently between 1996 and 1997, his annual sales more than doubled at 150 per cent worldwide. Boateng will open his second shop on the Row this September.
When you wear a Boateng, whether from his bi-yearly ready-to-wear, casual Diffusion collection (which include jeans, casual trousers and jackets) or Bespoke line, you’re marrying fit and design. A tenet that the designer felt was missing from the Row. Yet he still manages to apply the rules of classical tailoring. His custom made jackets include slightly protruding shoulders, hand-padded collars and lapels, hand-stitched buttonholes, reinforced pockets, a moulded chest and an opening slit at the cuffs. A Boateng bespoke suit is even more elaborate with everything tailored by hand.
But the quintessential Boateng slick suited look encompasses longer single button jackets normally accented with slanting pockets and narrow lapels which he hangs over tight fitting trousers. Of course colour is key, and the matching of suit to shirt is made easier with his vast array of choices from his shirt collections. But he is keen to not be labelled as simply a tailor, or designer for that matter, instead he has come up with his own term, 'bespoke couturier'.
Is Boateng fated to add the region to his growing number of conquests? There is much in the way of his outlandish sense of style, individuality and perfectly made suits which point in that direction. So much so, that standing at over 1.9 metres, he’ll be more than towering over the competition for years to come.
Ozwald Boateng
Harvey Nichols
Mall of the Emirates
Dubai, U.A.E
Tel +971 44098888
HYPERLINK "http://www.ozwaldboeteng.co.uk" www.ozwaldboeteng.co.uk
