Introducing Osman's Menswear Debut

Osman is making his first official foray into menswear, launching his debut collection this week. The London-based designer has shown womenswear on schedule in the city since 2005, and added afew menswear looks to the ready-to-wear show in September as a first look for clients.

"The launch of menswear has been quite organic for us because for several seasons the clean tailored lines of the coats, particularly the oversized bombers and outerwear, and looser trousers, like the culottes and palazzo pants, have regularly attracted a private menswear customer," designer Osman Yousefzada told us this morning. "For my latest womenswear collection I wanted to complete the circle."

Yousefzada's own style - which he says veers between "dandy and more relaxed" - may generally be less flamboyant than his menswear pieces, but the collection is created to dovetail perfectly with his women's offering.

"I considered what a Latin lover would wear," he said of the spring/summer 2016 pieces that sit alongside his Frida Kahlo-inspired ready-to-wear, "and what he would wear when he was in love. I was searching for the lover that Kahlo writes to in her profound love letter: 'I'd like to paint you but there are no colours, because there are so many, in my confusion. The tangible form of my great love'. So I decided to put him on the runway. That was his first sojourn. This proper autumn/winter 2016 collection is built on the idea of what you would wear when you are in love, but the man also has an essence of Stanley Kubrick's Barry Lyndon."

Comprising seven tuxedos, constructed in Italy, the collection employs techniques honed by Yousefzada over the past decade working in womenswear - as well as borrowing some fabrics from the girls.

"The jackets are light and mould to your body, but are tailored enough to give you a great silhouette," he explained. "I am using more womenswear fabrics than conventional men's tailoring fabrics; like the patterned bonded-silk with hand-drawn stained-glass leaves, an elegant corded moire silk, the rockstar-blue satin, and the chicest of soft grey flannels. For the lookbook, we completed the looks with classic white shirts and Barry Lyndon dandy pussy bows."