How Tinie Tempah got big in fashion: following his mum’s advice

The singer turn designer shares how his love of fashion came from his mum 
Tinie Tempah

He is about to unveil his latest collection at London Fashion Week Men’s — and Tinie Tempah says he still looks to the mother who inspired him for advice.

The Londoner, 29, has been regarded as one of Britain’s most stylish men since bursting onto the music scene in 2010 and has had a seat in the front row at shows for Coach and Burberry.

He told the Standard his love of fashion started at home in south London, where his mother, Rosemary Okogwu, would make clothes.

“I would say the whole process of making clothes and textiles came from my mum,” he said. “She used to go and buy fabrics from factories in Germany and Switzerland.

Dave Benett

“That’s where I used to see my mum buy this much fabric, give it to a lady and that lady would turn it into a dress. I am of Nigerian heritage so in that culture — the weddings, funerals — they have all these beautiful, beautifully extravagant fabrics. From there, I had an interest in it.”

Tempah, whose real name is Patrick Chukwuemeka Okogwu, said his mother, an NHS administrator, will “always tell me whether she likes my stuff. She is a tough customer. [I can rely on her to] be really blunt and honest with me.”

He also revealed some of his fashion mistakes when he was younger, adding: “I used to love fake brands at markets. Good fake stuff, and I would go in to school and I’d feel like a G.”

Tomorrow he unveils the third collection — called The Real World and of “workwear for the modern, stylish man” — from his brand What We Wear, which launched a year ago. He said: “As much as I am scared and nervous, I am also very confident as well. This isn’t about me being a musician.

“If I wanted to, I would have called it Tinie Tempah’s Clothing. All of this stuff would have my name on it, my face on it. We started launch in Selfridges with a ‘Come and meet Tinie’. I want people to treat it like they would any other brand.”

The What We Wear Collection show will take place at 2pm tomorrow at the BFC Showspace in the Strand. More information at londonfashionweekmens.com/schedule

Create a FREE account to continue reading

eros

Registration is a free and easy way to support our journalism.

Join our community where you can: comment on stories; sign up to newsletters; enter competitions and access content on our app.

Your email address

Must be at least 6 characters, include an upper and lower case character and a number

You must be at least 18 years old to create an account

* Required fields

Already have an account? SIGN IN

By clicking Create Account you confirm that your data has been entered correctly and you have read and agree to our Terms of use , Cookie policy and Privacy policy .

This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.

Thank you for registering

Please refresh the page or navigate to another page on the site to be automatically logged in