“I am in a cafe, I hope you don’t mind,” says Osman Yousefzada as we connect over Zoom. He's been rushing between meetings so has to make do with the impromptu venue.
It's little wonder he is busy. The day before, he unveiled his first public artwork, the spectacular Infinity Pattern 1, a giant 10,000-square-metre canvas of pink and black tumbling blocks that wraps the entire Selfridges building in Birmingham in the UK.
While the pattern feels light and cheery, as with much of Yousefzada’s work, there is a deeper meaning underpinning it. The repeated, cascading shapes echo the strict geometry of Islamic design, and the artwork as a whole, representing bridges connecting "continuously shifting cultures", is a nod to the thousands of migrants who have moved to the UK and the traditions they've brought with them.
It captures the "trauma of globalisation, migration from global south to global north", says Yousefzada. Born to migrant parents himself, this is a topic that is deeply personal.
Scroll through the gallery below for a closer look at Osman Yousefzada's 'Infinity Pattern 1' installation:
“My parents come from an underclass; they were illiterate and couldn’t read or write in any language,” he explains. They came from "humble rural areas" in Pakistan and Afghanistan, and moved to the UK in the early 1970s to fill the low-level jobs no one else wanted.
While Yousefzada now prefers to be known as a multidisciplinary artist, he made his name as a fashion designer, setting up his own label in 2008.
With a deft eye for sleek, sophisticated cuts infused with a subtle hint of subversion – in the form of colour, volume or decorative features – he shot to fame in 2013 when Beyonce wore one of his jumpsuits to the Grammys. His designs have also been worn by Lady Gaga, Taylor Swift, Jennifer Lopez and Queen Rania of Jordan.
While others would have revelled in the sudden fame, Yousefzada went on to launch an art publication called The Collective.
“I really enjoyed what I was doing,” he says of working in fashion. He says the publication simply offered him a new creative outlet.
“I was basically doing more collaborations with different artists, so it allowed me to broaden the conversation. I did anthropology at university before I did fashion, so I really approach what I do in a multilayered way."
Today that conversation has expanded to incorporate not only fashion, but also filmmaking, writing, artworks and installations.
Fashion is always this very hierarchical, elitist club, where being a posh kid is beneficial to some extent
Osman Yousefzada,
designer and artist
“I don’t really want to be making clothes the way I was making them before," he says. "It's not that I have turned my back on making clothes, it’s just that I feel I need to change my processes and the conversations about those processes. I am still making clothes, but I just want to do it so that it is not so disposable, so cyclical, with no seasonality to it, but a product that has value.”
His manifesto states that "fashion should be about the creation of human value from weaver to wearer", an ethos that is encapsulated in his autumn/winter 2021 collection.
A celebration of the handwork of artisans in Uzbekistan and India, it offers coats of luscious velvet ikat, tops heavy with Banjara mirror work, and jackets and dresses strewn with hand-stitched pomegranates and evil eye motifs. The result is wonderfully decadent, feels lovingly made and is worthy of being passed on to future generations.
Scroll through the gallery below to see more from Osman Yousefzada's autumn/winter 2021 collection:
Amid the sharp cuts and lavish handwork, a few pieces are graffitied with the words “here to stay", in reference to Yousefzada's spring/summer 2021 collection of the same name, which tackled the issue of racism in the UK. While not as overt, Yousefzada believes prejudice also exists in the fashion system.
“I think that as a creative, there are spaces and opportunities it takes a lot longer to get to. I don’t come from a middle-class background, so it has taken me a lot longer, even though I have been making clothes for a while.
"Fashion is always this very hierarchical, elitist club, where being a posh kid is beneficial to some extent. Or knowing the codes, because you don’t necessarily know them if you come from the sort of background I come from. You have to learn those codes, and learn what you have to say.”
Case in point, when starting out, he was often given advice that ran contrary what he was trying to achieve, but felt under pressure to act on it. “You feel you have to be grateful, as the advice is coming from the people who know what they are talking about, even if they come from a position that is completely unrelated to your position."
Much of that advice, he realised, was telling him to step back from the very heritage that made his work unique. Not surprisingly, he found this difficult to reconcile.
“It doesn’t really work if you can’t be yourself and what you have to offer authentically as a creative. [Or if] you are always trying to fit in and assimilate, thinking, ‘OK, I need to Anglicise my ways before I can be accepted and be part of this stable.'"
Now, 13 years after starting out, Yousefzada has successfully created a space where he can fully express his ideas, across a variety of mediums.
There has to be meaning behind what I want to present to the world
Osman Yousefzada,
designer and artist
“My work stems from three things – migration, ritual and exclusion. All aspects of my work stem from that, whether it's garment-making, moving images or art installations. It stems from one source, but it becomes many different things. I don’t see them as separate things, I see them all rolled into one. Making clothes becomes the very performative part of it for me.”
Part of that message involved Yousefzada skipping two fashion seasons entirely, instead creating a documentary-style film called Her Dreams are Bigger. In it, he took "made in Bangladesh" clothes back to the garment workers who made them, shining a spotlight on the women who are still so often ignored by the industry.
Another strong inspiration is his mother and her experiences, which he has referenced many times, particularly in the artworks A Migrant’s Room of Her Own and Leaving Your Mark, both of which have been shown at the Ikon Gallery in Birmingham.
“When my mother came to this country she was asked to sign her name with a cross on official documents. Leaving your Mark was a piece of work I did all about crosses, and I got her to sign her name with a cross again."
He is unafraid to tackle difficult issues head-on, but the question is, why does he feel so compelled to? “For me it is about being an artist and an activist for social change. So the clothes have to be fully sustainable, the visual arts have to have a strong defined message behind them, and the workshops have to have objectives of healing and understanding. There has to be meaning behind what I want to present to the world.”
To that end, Yousefzada is moving forward across many fronts. Having scaled down his fashion collections to only two a year (“bespoke projects, not as full on”), he still has a packed calendar.
“I am doing a commissioned piece for the Museum of Contemporary art in Sydney, I have my book coming out in January, and a few other projects. I am doing a residency and I start my PhD in September at the RCA, so there is a lot of stuff happening."
And when does he find time to sleep? He laughs. "It's a lot of juggling." For now, he is still buzzing from the Selfridges project and from seeing his artwork on such a huge scale. "It’s something that is very important in my home town.“
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The biog
Simon Nadim has completed 7,000 dives.
The hardest dive in the UAE is the German U-boat 110m down off the Fujairah coast.
As a child, he loved the documentaries of Jacques Cousteau
He also led a team that discovered the long-lost portion of the Ines oil tanker.
If you are interested in diving, he runs the XR Hub Dive Centre in Fujairah
Red flags
- Promises of high, fixed or 'guaranteed' returns.
- Unregulated structured products or complex investments often used to bypass traditional safeguards.
- Lack of clear information, vague language, no access to audited financials.
- Overseas companies targeting investors in other jurisdictions - this can make legal recovery difficult.
- Hard-selling tactics - creating urgency, offering 'exclusive' deals.
Courtesy: Carol Glynn, founder of Conscious Finance Coaching
Match info
Uefa Champions League Group B
Barcelona v Tottenham Hotspur, midnight
LAST-16 FIXTURES
Sunday, January 20
3pm: Jordan v Vietnam at Al Maktoum Stadium, Dubai
6pm: Thailand v China at Hazza bin Zayed Stadium, Al Ain
9pm: Iran v Oman at Mohamed bin Zayed Stadium, Abu Dhabi
Monday, January 21
3pm: Japan v Saudi Arabia at Sharjah Stadium
6pm: Australia v Uzbekistan at Khalifa bin Zayed Stadium, Al Ain
9pm: UAE v Kyrgyzstan at Zayed Sports City Stadium, Abu Dhabi
Tuesday, January 22
5pm: South Korea v Bahrain at Rashid Stadium, Dubai
8pm: Qatar v Iraq at Al Nahyan Stadium, Abu Dhabi
Tributes from the UAE's personal finance community
• Sebastien Aguilar, who heads SimplyFI.org, a non-profit community where people learn to invest Bogleheads’ style
“It is thanks to Jack Bogle’s work that this community exists and thanks to his work that many investors now get the full benefits of long term, buy and hold stock market investing.
Compared to the industry, investing using the common sense approach of a Boglehead saves a lot in costs and guarantees higher returns than the average actively managed fund over the long term.
From a personal perspective, learning how to invest using Bogle’s approach was a turning point in my life. I quickly realised there was no point chasing returns and paying expensive advisers or platforms. Once money is taken care off, you can work on what truly matters, such as family, relationships or other projects. I owe Jack Bogle for that.”
• Sam Instone, director of financial advisory firm AES International
"Thought to have saved investors over a trillion dollars, Jack Bogle’s ideas truly changed the way the world invests. Shaped by his own personal experiences, his philosophy and basic rules for investors challenged the status quo of a self-interested global industry and eventually prevailed. Loathed by many big companies and commission-driven salespeople, he has transformed the way well-informed investors and professional advisers make decisions."
• Demos Kyprianou, a board member of SimplyFI.org
"Jack Bogle for me was a rebel, a revolutionary who changed the industry and gave the little guy like me, a chance. He was also a mentor who inspired me to take the leap and take control of my own finances."
• Steve Cronin, founder of DeadSimpleSaving.com
"Obsessed with reducing fees, Jack Bogle structured Vanguard to be owned by its clients – that way the priority would be fee minimisation for clients rather than profit maximisation for the company.
His real gift to us has been the ability to invest in the stock market (buy and hold for the long term) rather than be forced to speculate (try to make profits in the shorter term) or even worse have others speculate on our behalf.
Bogle has given countless investors the ability to get on with their life while growing their wealth in the background as fast as possible. The Financial Independence movement would barely exist without this."
• Zach Holz, who blogs about financial independence at The Happiest Teacher
"Jack Bogle was one of the greatest forces for wealth democratisation the world has ever seen. He allowed people a way to be free from the parasitical "financial advisers" whose only real concern are the fat fees they get from selling you over-complicated "products" that have caused millions of people all around the world real harm.”
• Tuan Phan, a board member of SimplyFI.org
"In an industry that’s synonymous with greed, Jack Bogle was a lone wolf, swimming against the tide. When others were incentivised to enrich themselves, he stood by the ‘fiduciary’ standard – something that is badly needed in the financial industry of the UAE."
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Company Profile
Company name: Fine Diner
Started: March, 2020
Co-founders: Sami Elayan, Saed Elayan and Zaid Azzouka
Based: Dubai
Industry: Technology and food delivery
Initial investment: Dh75,000
Investor: Dtec Startupbootcamp
Future plan: Looking to raise $400,000
Total sales: Over 1,000 deliveries in three months
MATCH INFO
Uefa Champions League quarter-final (first-leg score):
Juventus (1) v Ajax (1), Tuesday, 11pm UAE
Match will be shown on BeIN Sports
RESULT
Esperance de Tunis 1 Guadalajara 1
(Esperance won 6-5 on penalties)
Esperance: Belaili 38’
Guadalajara: Sandoval 5’
Third Test
Day 3, stumps
India 443-7 (d) & 54-5 (27 ov)
Australia 151
India lead by 346 runs with 5 wickets remaining
Who's who in Yemen conflict
Houthis: Iran-backed rebels who occupy Sanaa and run unrecognised government
Yemeni government: Exiled government in Aden led by eight-member Presidential Leadership Council
Southern Transitional Council: Faction in Yemeni government that seeks autonomy for the south
Habrish 'rebels': Tribal-backed forces feuding with STC over control of oil in government territory
England's lowest Test innings
- 45 v Australia in Sydney, January 28, 1887
- 46 v West Indies in Port of Spain, March 25, 1994
- 51 v West Indies in Kingston, February 4, 2009
- 52 v Australia at The Oval, August 14, 1948
- 53 v Australia at Lord's, July 16, 1888
- 58 v New Zealand in Auckland, March 22, 2018
Can NRIs vote in the election?
Indians residing overseas cannot cast their ballot abroad
Non-resident Indians or NRIs can vote only by going to a polling booth in their home constituency
There are about 3.1 million NRIs living overseas
Indians have urged political parties to extend the right to vote to citizens residing overseas
A committee of the Election Commission of India approved of proxy voting for non-resident Indians
Proxy voting means that a person can authorise someone residing in the same polling booth area to cast a vote on his behalf.
This option is currently available for the armed forces, police and government officials posted outside India
A bill was passed in the lower house of India’s parliament or the Lok Sabha to extend proxy voting to non-resident Indians
However, this did not come before the upper house or Rajya Sabha and has lapsed
The issue of NRI voting draws a huge amount of interest in India and overseas
Over the past few months, Indians have received messages on mobile phones and on social media claiming that NRIs can cast their votes online
The Election Commission of India then clarified that NRIs could not vote online
The Election Commission lodged a complaint with the Delhi Police asking it to clamp down on the people spreading misinformation
More from Rashmee Roshan Lall
Juliot Vinolia’s checklist for adopting alternate-day fasting
- Don’t do it more than once in three days
- Don’t go under 700 calories on fasting days
- Ensure there is sufficient water intake, as the body can go in dehydration mode
- Ensure there is enough roughage (fibre) in the food on fasting days as well
- Do not binge on processed or fatty foods on non-fasting days
- Complement fasting with plant-based foods, fruits, vegetables, seafood. Cut out processed meats and processed carbohydrates
- Manage your sleep
- People with existing gastric or mental health issues should avoid fasting
- Do not fast for prolonged periods without supervision by a qualified expert
Who was Alfred Nobel?
The Nobel Prize was created by wealthy Swedish chemist and entrepreneur Alfred Nobel.
- In his will he dictated that the bulk of his estate should be used to fund "prizes to those who, during the preceding year, have conferred the greatest benefit to humankind".
- Nobel is best known as the inventor of dynamite, but also wrote poetry and drama and could speak Russian, French, English and German by the age of 17. The five original prize categories reflect the interests closest to his heart.
- Nobel died in 1896 but it took until 1901, following a legal battle over his will, before the first prizes were awarded.
Tamkeen's offering
- Option 1: 70% in year 1, 50% in year 2, 30% in year 3
- Option 2: 50% across three years
- Option 3: 30% across five years
Tickets
Tickets start at Dh100 for adults, while children can enter free on the opening day. For more information, visit www.mubadalawtc.com.
Founders: Abdulmajeed Alsukhan, Turki Bin Zarah and Abdulmohsen Albabtain.
Based: Riyadh
Offices: UAE, Vietnam and Germany
Founded: September, 2020
Number of employees: 70
Sector: FinTech, online payment solutions
Funding to date: $116m in two funding rounds
Investors: Checkout.com, Impact46, Vision Ventures, Wealth Well, Seedra, Khwarizmi, Hala Ventures, Nama Ventures and family offices
Have you been targeted?
Tuan Phan of SimplyFI.org lists five signs you have been mis-sold to:
1. Your pension fund has been placed inside an offshore insurance wrapper with a hefty upfront commission.
2. The money has been transferred into a structured note. These products have high upfront, recurring commission and should never be in a pension account.
3. You have also been sold investment funds with an upfront initial charge of around 5 per cent. ETFs, for example, have no upfront charges.
4. The adviser charges a 1 per cent charge for managing your assets. They are being paid for doing nothing. They have already claimed massive amounts in hidden upfront commission.
5. Total annual management cost for your pension account is 2 per cent or more, including platform, underlying fund and advice charges.
Jebel Ali card
1.45pm: Maiden Dh75,000 1,400m
2.15pm: Handicap Dh90,000 1,400m
2.45pm: Maiden Dh75,000 1,000m
3.15pm: Handicap Dh105,000 1,200m
3.45pm: Maiden Dh75,000 1,600m
4.15pm: Handicap Dh105,000 1,600m
4.45pm: Handicap Dh80,000 1,800m
The National selections
1.45pm: Cosmic Glow
2.15pm: Karaginsky
2.45pm: Welcome Surprise
3.15pm: Taamol
3.45pm: Rayig
4.15pm: Chiefdom
4.45pm: California Jumbo
The specs
Engine: 1.5-litre, 4-cylinder turbo
Transmission: CVT
Power: 170bhp
Torque: 220Nm
Price: Dh98,900
The Lost Letters of William Woolf
Helen Cullen, Graydon House
MATCH INFO
Uefa Champions League final:
Who: Real Madrid v Liverpool
Where: NSC Olimpiyskiy Stadium, Kiev, Ukraine
When: Saturday, May 26, 10.45pm (UAE)
TV: Match on BeIN Sports
EMERGENCY PHONE NUMBERS
Estijaba – 8001717 – number to call to request coronavirus testing
Ministry of Health and Prevention – 80011111
Dubai Health Authority – 800342 – The number to book a free video or voice consultation with a doctor or connect to a local health centre
Emirates airline – 600555555
Etihad Airways – 600555666
Ambulance – 998
Knowledge and Human Development Authority – 8005432 ext. 4 for Covid-19 queries
Brief scoreline:
Tottenham 1
Son 78'
Manchester City 0
In numbers: China in Dubai
The number of Chinese people living in Dubai: An estimated 200,000
Number of Chinese people in International City: Almost 50,000
Daily visitors to Dragon Mart in 2018/19: 120,000
Daily visitors to Dragon Mart in 2010: 20,000
Percentage increase in visitors in eight years: 500 per cent
The biog
Favourite hobby: taking his rescue dog, Sally, for long walks.
Favourite book: anything by Stephen King, although he said the films rarely match the quality of the books
Favourite film: The Shawshank Redemption stands out as his favourite movie, a classic King novella
Favourite music: “I have a wide and varied music taste, so it would be unfair to pick a single song from blues to rock as a favourite"
Company profile
Date started: Founded in May 2017 and operational since April 2018
Founders: co-founder and chief executive, Doaa Aref; Dr Rasha Rady, co-founder and chief operating officer.
Based: Cairo, Egypt
Sector: Health-tech
Size: 22 employees
Funding: Seed funding
Investors: Flat6labs, 500 Falcons, three angel investors
Company Fact Box
Company name/date started: Abwaab Technologies / September 2019
Founders: Hamdi Tabbaa, co-founder and CEO. Hussein Alsarabi, co-founder and CTO
Based: Amman, Jordan
Sector: Education Technology
Size (employees/revenue): Total team size: 65. Full-time employees: 25. Revenue undisclosed
Stage: early-stage startup
Investors: Adam Tech Ventures, Endure Capital, Equitrust, the World Bank-backed Innovative Startups SMEs Fund, a London investment fund, a number of former and current executives from Uber and Netflix, among others.
Our family matters legal consultant
Name: Hassan Mohsen Elhais
Position: legal consultant with Al Rowaad Advocates and Legal Consultants.
Company%20Profile
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