Osman Yousefzada has been a staple on the London Fashion Week schedule for years. Always one to bring a sensibility steeped in his roots, his clothes have equal balance of glamour and grit, elegance and substance. Of late, his collections were pre-occupied with reducing waste, working with deadstock and presenting each collection with a community of artists that reflected his open values.

Yousefzada has been experimenting in mediums lately. Recently his camo-print cladding around Selfridges Birmingham was a gargantuan statement of intent, moving him away from textiles and onto the 3D form of large-scale buildings. And over the past few years, one could find his musings on all things childhood, inspiration as well as the unlikely path he took to get to the upper echelons of British fashion, even writing for the likes of British Vogue.

So his new memoir, The Go-Between, talks about how he grew up in a devout, patriarchal Pashtun community in the middle of the red-light district of 1980s Birmingham and how his every day experiences of racism as well as family and community expectations were not the most conducive to getting into fashion school, hobnobbing with editors and dreaming up clothes for women to dance in.

And yet. Yousefzada, against what seemed like really terrible odds, managed to become one of London's shining design stars. But it's his tale of the journey it took to get to here is a reflection of the dichotomy of modern day Britain, and it's a gripping one at that. 

Buy your copy HERE from Waterstones