Ozwald Boateng: From reviving Savile Row to dressing Burna Boy for the Met Gala

BBC News

17-05-2025

Ozwald Boateng, celebrating four decades of making his indelible mark on the fashion industry, got his chance to stamp his style on the Met Gala in New York earlier this month.The esteemed British-Ghanaian designer for the first time dressed celebrities - including three of Africa's biggest musicians, Tems, Burna Boy and Arya Starr, as well as actors Ncuti Gatwa and Jaden Smith - at what is seen as his industry's biggest night of the year.The theme - Superfine: Tailoring Black Style - was "completely in my wheelhouse", he says, as it looked at the way that style formed black identities.Given that he already has a robust legacy in the design world, the 58-year-old saw the opportunity to find fresh adherents to the Boateng look. "I think it's, in a way, communicating to a new audience," he tells the BBC a few days after the showcase.Throughout his 40 years in fashion, the designer has built a reputation for challenging the norms of men's tailoring. His eponymous brand sells form-fitting, stylish suits, often accented with bold colours and West African-inspired patterns.The son of Ghanaian immigrants, Boateng reimagined the country's iconic kente cloth to produce his signature "tribal" pattern."It's all about having a strong concept, having a thorough idea of what you want to achieve from the textiles," he says.The Met Gala perfectly matched his outlook. "Being a theme about black culture and black cultural influence, I mean, how can you do that without Africa?" he asks.
Considering the link to Ghana, Boateng explains: "When we were colonised by the Europeans or the Brits, we kept our traditional dress, but tailoring was a big part of how we dressed to look more... effectively more European. "My father always wore tailored suits. You had to be smart at all times, that was something I was taught."As if producing outfits for 16 celebrities for fashion's premier event was not stressful enough, Boateng switched up Burna Boy's outfit less than 24 hours before the event."We did his fitting quite literally the night before the Met Gala," Boateng says, adding that everyone in the room got "really excited" when they saw the Grammy-award winning musician in the finished product.
The look - a red suit paired with a buttercup yellow shirt and eel-skin cape - was partly inspired by Burna Boy's Nigerian roots. The musician told Vogue: "As a waterside pikin [Pidgin for "child"] from the Niger Delta, the eel and fish in general are the lifeblood of my people - they symbolise survival, spirit and the flow of tradition through generations."
The Met Gala was "not unusual", Boateng says, explaining that Africa has been part of his "message" throughout his career.Back in 1995, Boateng was the first black designer to open a shop on Savile Row, a London street famed for fine tailoring."When I first started as a designer, Savile as a street was a dying street," Boateng recalls."The concept, it was dying. I effectively moved there in the early 90s and breathed new life into it."Boateng was dubbed the "peacock of Savile Row" - with his flamboyance, 6ft-something frame and modelesque facial features, he stood out among his neighbours.Colour and flair had long been part of Boateng's psyche. At five years old his favourite outfit was a purple, mohair suit made by his mother, who was a seamstress.Young Boateng commandeered his mother's sewing machine and although he initially chose to study computing at college, he switched to fashion after realising menswear was his future.As a teenager, Boateng was greatly inspired by tailoring titan Giorgio Armani - and decades later, Armani would praise the London designer for his "elegance" and "cutting edge" designs.
Boateng opened his first studio in his early 20s, dressing the likes of Mick Jagger, Jimmy Paige and Spike Lee.He then opened his Savile Row store - at the age of 28 he was the youngest to ever do so.The burgeoning designer captivated London's fashion scene initially, but in 1998 he went bankrupt when an economic downturn in east Asia scuppered a major order. Both his professional and personal life descended into disarray - in just 12 months an entire collection was stolen from his studio and his marriage broke down.But the peacock strutted his way back. Boateng gradually rebuilt his business and in 2002 moved into bigger premises on Savile Row.Since then, he has served as Givency's creative director for menswear, been awarded an OBE, designed staff uniforms for British Airways and branched out into womenswear.While racking up professional and charitable commitments, Boateng was raising two children.Now adults, Oscar and Emilia Boateng accompanied their father to the Met Gala, dressed in the suits that made their surname one of the most famous in contemporary British tailoring. They are not, however, keen to follow their father into fashion design."I'm trying to slowly but surely seduce them into the fashion business," Boateng jokes."It is ultimately their decision to decide what they want from their life. If they find something they're passionate about in a way I have, I am happy."And what is next for his own passion? Boateng might have a brain brimming with concepts, but he has a clear vision of where he wants his brand to go next."The future is expansion," he says, "raising capital to really, really push the brand globally"."I think it's the moment in time - and it's the right moment."
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