Osman's dresses are £179 (left) and £250 (right), available on line as well as at the Oxford Street store
To celebrate High Street Fashion Week, John Lewis, the epicentre of Keep Calm and Carry On-ness, has spiced up its Oxford Street fashion floor with a stylishly creative Fashion Pavilion, in which is housed a limited edition collection from designer Osman Yousefzada, a favourite amongst the fashion elite (Lisa Armstrong, one of our fav fash-eds, loves him) and a lad who understands ‘grown up’ chic.
John Lewis has been working hard over the last year to re-engineer its fashion offering to be less predictable and this chic little pavilion, designed by Grimshaw Architects, who also designed Cornwall’s Eden Project, looks like the stylish love child of the haberdashery depart (all those spent fabric tubes) and The Conran Shop. Simon Fowler, managing director of the Oxford Street store told TWR “We like to give a nod to our fantastic brand heritage but also look to the future” which the pavilion and the collaboration with designers such as Osman, Clements Ribeiro and Tracy Boyd (who will each have have a two week limited edition collection previewed in the space) does very effectively. Interestingly all three designers are excellent at understanding what modern older women want.
Jane and I spoke to the charming Mr Yousefzada (a little frantic due to the impending chaos of Fashion Week) who was very pleased with how his limited edition (only 100 pieces of each design are available) has turned out. Pressed for a favourite he claimed ‘I love them all’. We loved the fact that it was a tightly edited four piece collection of two knee length and one long dress, plus a signature Osman tailored coat. How lovely to have had someone curate it down to a small range of perfect classics. Note to retailers, sometimes perfectly curated less, is more.
The Fashion Pavilion will be at John Lewis Oxford Street until November, when it goes on tour to Cardiff, then Edinburgh, Stratford, Liverpool, Bristol and Newcastle next year.
Osman Yousefzada’s collection for John Lewis can be seen on line here
Osman's coat, £350, (left) and the drape back dress £179 (right)
The Fashion Pavilion, by Grimshaw Architects
