Riac Oseph has a unique point of view on utility wear, with reimagined lungis, white lace button-ups, and more finding space in celebrity closets like Bhumi Pednekar, Daniel Caesar and more. His namesake label looks to the Indian uncle—and their universal dress code—meshing concepts into clothing.
Oseph was born in a small town called Ranni, in the Pathanamthitta district in Kerala but grew up in Kuwait. “It’s the sensibilities of how people dress in Kuwait that have influenced me,” he explains. “An Egyptian uncle will wear the Dishdasha (Thobe) with a blazer; whereas a Pakistani uncle will opt for the same blazer paired with a Kurta. Meanwhile, an Indian uncle will fearlessly embrace a bold clash of patterns in both his top and bottom that should be too much for the eye — but it somehow works.”
It was when he won the Fashion Industry Award at Regent’s University London back in 2022, that one of the panel judges, Angela Quaintrell (a fashion consultant in high fashion retail), insisted he start selling. “She asked me if I had finalized my budget calculations for producing the collection,” Oseph stopped to laugh, thinking back at his response, “I said, ‘I know how much it cost me to make [just] this graduate collection?’”
Since then, Oseph has founded his brand and introduced his second collection titled ADI. In his mother tongue, Malayalam, adi translates to an assertive expression of physical contact by another person, such as hitting someone. The collection has quickly grown gaining attention from musicians like MNEK and Will Heard as well as sported by TikToker Victor Kunda. This latest collection stands in stark contrast to his first one named Hugs I Miss You, experimenting with the idea of physical touch.
One of Oseph’s highlighting pieces, that follow through both collections is his Inima waistline pants. The pants incorporate the form of tucking a shirt into a lungi, where the waistline is sloped into an asymmetric c-shape—coming in a variety of different styles; pin-striped, leather, jorts, linen, lace, pleated, and even checkered boxers. Although his brand is primarily menswear, Swiss athlete Alisha Lehmann and actor Bhumi Pednekar have found resonance in his clothes, not shying away from his distinctive waistlines.
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