Ozwald Boateng OBE

About

Ozwald Boateng OBE

For over three decades, Ozwald Boateng has been revolutionising menswear fashion with new and original aesthetics from Savile Row culture mixed with an international flair, attention to detail and craftsmanship.

His intuitive use of cut, colours and fabrics blends classic tailoring from British tradition with high-end styling to suit an entire new generation of modern men.

Ozwald was born in London to a family of Ghanaian descent. His interest for fashion and design came when he was just a young student; he decided to drop out of the computing course he was studying and started a fashion career at Southgate College.

Inspiration came from his family environment and his parents’ culture and tradition. He designed and created his very first clothing collection using his mother’s sewing machine. He later sold the collection to menswear shop Sprint, in Covent Garden, London.

Ozwald’s designs have been featured in a number of series and films, and he has personally dressed figures such as Will Smith, Daniel Day Lewis and Jamie Foxx for public appearances.

Ozwald has received a wide number of awards, including Best Menswear Designer (1996), British Fashion Award (2000) and an OBE by The Queen (2006). He was appointed Young Global Leader by the World Economic Forum in 2007 and received a Veritas Award from Harvard in 2014.

To celebrate the Centenary of British Airways in 2019, Ozwald has been tasked with reimagining the uniforms for their 32,000 worldwide uniform wearing employees. “I’m looking forward to taking a uniform and refining it into a collection”.

Kruger Cowne Speaker Awards: Inclusion Speaker of the Year 2017, Male Entrepreneur Speaker of the Year 2015.