Osman Yousefzada

Osman Yousefzada (عثمان یوسفزاده) is a British interdisciplinary artist, writer and social activist.

Beyoncé wore an Osman dress at the 55th Annual Grammy Awards.

Yousefzada was born in 1977 to an artisanal Sunni Muslim Pashtun family in Birmingham.

His Pakistani father was a carpenter, while his mother of Afghan heritage was a tailor running a dress-making business.

He grew up in Balsall Heath, to parents who were unable to read or write in English or their mother tongue.

Yousefzada studied anthropology at the SOAS University of London and later did a fashion course at Central Saint Martins.

He also received an MPhil from Cambridge University.

Besides being an artist, Osman is working as a research practitioner at the Royal College of Art and is a visiting fellow at Jesus College, Cambridge.

Osman has written on various themes of Race, Labour and marginalised communities.

In 2022 he published an memoir, called 'The Go Between'.

The memoir gives an insight about growing up in the 80's in Birmingham, in a closed Pakistani migrant community.

The book has received critical acclaim.

Stephen Fry reviewed it as 'One of the greatest childhood memoirs of our time'.

Hanif Kureishi has said that it was 'Poetic and moving' and The Guardian reviewed it as magic behind closed doors.

The memoir was longlisted for the Polari First Book Prize in 2022 and won the Slightly Foxed prize in 2023.

He launched his eponymous label Osman in 2008, and expanded his practice into a visual art space since 2013, with a 'zine' called The Collective - a cross disciplinary publication of themed conversations, between writers, artists, and curators, including, Milovan Farronato, Hans Ulrich Obrist, Nicola Lees, Celia Hempton, Anthea Hamilton, Prem Singh and others.

Yousefzada launched his eponymous label, Osman, in 2008.

He earned a reputation at London's fashion weeks that year mostly by the black dresses he designed, which prompted the U.S. Vogue magazine to call him the "re-inventor of the Little Black Dress".

Within a few years of launching his label, Yousefzada had become a "fashion powerhouse".

Some of his famous clients include Beyoncé, Emily Blunt and Lady Gaga.

In 2016 he won the Outstanding Achievement in Art & Design at the 6th Asian Awards.

Osman has shown internationally at various institutions, from the Whitechapel Gallery, V&A, Dhaka Art Summit, Lahore Biennale, Lahore Museum, Cincinnati Art Museum, Ringling  Museum, Florida, Almaty Museum and solo at the Ikon Gallery in 2018.

Yousefzada's first solo exhibition, "Being Somewhere Else", was at the critically acclaimed contemporary art space Ikon Gallery in 2018.

The exhibition was made to demonstrate the inequalities in the contemporary fashion world, as well as exploring marginalised voices and experiences within migration.

Yousefzada created a short film named Her Dreams are Bigger about garment workers in Bangladesh which was shown at the Whitechapel Gallery in London.

He launched his first solo exhibition at the Ikon Gallery in 2018.

The exhibition was made to demonstrate the inequalities in the contemporary fashion world, as well as experiences with migration.

In 2019, Yousefzada opened up a temporary space in London's Floral Street which he named House of Osman.

Nowadays Yousefzada is focusing more on visual & performative art.

Yousefzada has claimed that his Asian heritage inspired some of his cuts and that many of his works are done in Pakistan and India.

Recently for a capsule collection for fall 2022, Yousefzada made designs to celebrate South Asian identity, using fabrics and inspirations from India, Pakistan and Afghanistan.

Some of his designs have also had inspirations from Maasai tribes and Ancient Greece.

Rituals & Spells, Cromwell Place, London

What is Seen & What is Not, Victoria & Albert Museum, London

Being Somewhere Else, Ikon Gallery, Birmingham

Life is more important than Art, White Chapel Gallery, London

One that Includes Myth, Goodman Gallery, London

Ventilator, Installation, Royal College of Art, London

Alea Iacta Est, Vistamare, Milan (Italy)

Spaces of Transcendence, Sufi & Trans-gender rituals (New Commission), Museum of Contemporary Art Australia, Sydney