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noun | An earthly representative of God

We believe that beauty is a state of being. Our styles and inspirations transcend time and place to create a synthesis of beauty, dignity, and elegance that can be recognized and admired in every corner of the world. 

Let us get to know you better. Give us your vices and struggles, dreams and passions. We will take your story and tailor it into the fabric, cut, and fit of the garments that are uniquely yours. 

OUR STORY

Osman Aslam envisions a world where people recognize that they are intimately connected to their clothing through a mutual bond.  Adorning our bodies with well-sourced fibers cut into uniquely tailored designs has a socially transformative power. He believes that our clothes can restore confidence in the body, that from time to time, lose assurance in the wholeness of itself. Consumption also has the capacity to be more than a cold transaction, it can also be an act of repair to the ecological wounds caused by the industrialization of fashion. With each line and contour put to paper, Osman hopes to animate a new process where both people and planet redefine the silhouette of the garment industry.

While his designs harken to classical periods of the 20th century, his inspiration has a more ancient root.  Osman traces his lineage to the Kashmir Valley, where he and his family were immersed in the rich history of luxury fabric weaving. Amongst Lahore’s myriad bustling bazaars and Mughal monuments, his heart took to the ancient art of fiber design.

The South Asian subcontinent  has been producing clothes for the global marketplace since the fifth millennium BC.  With skillful hands and exquisite attention to detail, the people of the Indus Valley Civilization skillfully used bone needles, wooden spindles and seashell buttons to weave and tailor garments. Acclaim of their work can be found referenced in one of the oldest surviving religious texts, the Rig Veda. These garments  were traded with the Babylonians, the Greeks, the Romans, the Arabs and later, the English.

While the region remained a focal point of the clothing world, it wasn’t until the Mughal rise in the mid-15th century that the garment enterprise propelled to new artistic and creative heights. Under Akbar the Great, a new kind of world-view started to take hold–one in which textiles played an increasingly transcendental role.

Osman wasn’t your average 80’s kid. While others spent their days in the arcade, he spent his nights listening to early stories of his shawl-weaving ancestors. His parents introduced him to secrets more valuable than any Double-Dragon cheat code. They revealed the mysterious art of weaving Pashmina (or the now-extinct Shah Toosh, trans. literally, King of Wool) and explained how that ancient Kashmiri knowledge had passed from one generation to the next for over a millennia.

It was also in the home that Osman learned how to properly press a shirt, shine a shoe, and tie the perfect Windsor knot. Every morning, the Scottish sisters would make sure that every part of his boarding school uniform was in perfect alignment. After class, he’d sometimes frequent the Mughal gardens for strolls, often stopping to marvel at the sight of roaming peacocks admiring their color and design. He couldn’t help but relate.

Lahore is a cultural confluence of Turkish, Persian and Indian influences, and became a popular pilgrimage for religious saints and contemplative poets.  Being a student of story, Osman became fascinated  with the Naqshbands, a group of Sufi mystics, whose name literally translates to, The Image Makers.  He found inspiration in the way they connected a spiritual praxis to traditional forms of handicraft and folk art. Through reflection on these roots, and on his joy for the beauty of the natural world, Osman cultivated a deep respect for these traditions and began taking pride in his public presentation.

Just before turning 16, Osman and his family emigrated to the United States and settled in the suburbs of Chicago. The move was difficult. He was uprooted from his home, from his friends, and from his newly formed teenage identity. He struggled with being replanted into a strange new world that didn’t recognize him or his family. The food was different, the architecture unfamiliar, and the language anything but easy to master.  Being the new brown kid within a predominantly white school brought with it many new challenges. But that didn’t thwart him from finding his voice and searching for ways to connect with his peers. After a visit to a local thrift store with an unexpected friend, he found the answer—clothes.

Osman always knew that he had a keen eye for style, but he couldn’t afford the high-end brands of the time. The thrift store was a place where he could source outfits and fabrics on a budget and explore a newfound form of creative expression. Ironically, it was here in the dusty shelves of small-town America that Osman rediscovered colorful and fragrant parts of his past.  He found that fashion functioned like a universal language allowing him to see the world and be seen in it. It was a way to start a conversation, without really having to string together a sentence. Clothing speaks for itself. 

This passion really started to develop when he went to university. On campus, he quickly became known as the best dressed guy in the dorms. It wasn’t uncommon for friends to ask him for style advise and how to dress appropriate for an occasion. Often, Osman would lend out pieces from his personal wardrobe. It wasn’t uncommon for him to produce a photo of you and your look.  After all, these were the early days of social media. Osman wasn’t just creatively problem solving, he was building up and empowering men around him.

One cold winter morning after a long night out he found himself at the base of the (then) Sears Tower. He recalled the first time seeing the evocative giant iron spire in the sky after arriving to the city a decade earlier. Looking up, he said to himself, “If an engineer from Bangladesh could build this, I can build my own business!”

Osman didn’t reinvent himself, he amplified his true character with the clothes he curated.  With Vicegerent, he’s bringing a dignified voice to your innate beauty. With Vicegerent, you’re being folded into a larger story. Osman invites you to join him in wandering the gardens of yourself and ponder the possibility of who you are and what you are trying to express with the garments you wear. Let him help you tell your story by tying together the strands of your life.

When not advancing his studies in comparative religions and art history, Osman can be found traveling with his wife and two daughters. You may also find him on the pitch enjoying a game of the “gentleman’s sport” of cricket.