Husam El Odeh: From Jewelry Design to Fashion Design

Jewellery designer Husam el Odeh’s fashion credentials have been steadily building over the past few years, but a spring 2010 collaboration with uber-cool label Acne is set to propel him firmly onto the fashion radar.

Born and raised in Germany, Husam el Odeh studied and worked as an artist in Berlin before moving to the UK and turning his attention to jewellery design. He studied at Middlesex University, and before his third year had begun he was already collaborating with emerging designer Marios Schwab on his debut Fashion East collection. In fact collaborations have been at the heart of his career to date – he has designed jewellery for menswear label Siv Stodal, put his signature stamp onto a much coveted pair of Kickers, made pieces from chicken wire for queen of knits Ann-Sofie Back and is a long-standing design partner with Japanese men’s wear designer Mihara Yasuhiro.
As well as his eponymous line, which is full of cool and quirky pieces for London’s hippest, he also finds time to indulge his talent for figurative drawing – the likes of Colette, B Store, Dazed and Confused and Vogue Homme have all commissioned illustrations by him.

For spring 2010 El Odeh has teamed up with Swedish label-du-jour Acne, producing metal armour-style plates that adorn the knees and shins of jeans and the shoulders of denim jackets, as well as embellishing bags and designing the sunglasses – all of which had the fashion crowd in a spin when it was invited to check out the collection a few weeks ago. And in the next couple of weeks his hotly anticipated jewellery collection for Topman is due to hit stores. Yes, it’s for men, but why should they have all the fun? Check out the chunky silver pieces yourself when they hit the shop floor on 16 October.

Husam el Odeh is available from www.notjustalabel.com

(elleuk.com)

I first saw the jeans in the April issue of Nylon magazine and I must say I was intrigued. I love the unique sculptural design, although I'm not sure if I would wear them. If so, I would dress them up with a black ruffle blouse and heels of course.