Ozwald Sets Sail

(LOS ANGELES) "I don't know if I could pull it off," admitted GQ West Coast editor Chris Huvane, when he showed up, weirdly, in Gucci at his magazine's event to launch British menswear designer Ozwald Boateng's new reality show, House of Boateng, on the Sundance Channel.

Scion Huvane-whose older brothers are CAA's Kevin Huvane and PMK-HBH's Stephen Huvane-was talking about wearing Boateng's snazzy suits, like the one the designer wore himself last night at the Beverly Hills Museum of Television and Film: black with red pinstripes, and a red shirt. "British men seem more experimental and open when it comes to suits and the whole idea of bespoke," Boateng, who also designs menswear for Givenchy, said. "They've got the tradition of Savile Row but the style of Brian Jones to refer to. In America, guys seem to be referencing the Marlboro Man. But all that's going to change now that I'm around."

Boateng, who up until now had zero distribution in the U.S.-despite the fact that he's dressed both Jamie Foxx and Will Smith for the Oscars (and Daniel Day Lewis)-still has a lot of pals on this side of the pond. Bryan Rabin hosted the party to which Jamie Foxx and Laurence Fishburne turned up with new dad Gavin Rossdale, as well as GQ's Kelly Styne, Marilyn Heston, Dior's Stacy Cusack, Joy Bryant (who met Boateng in the U.K. when she was, as she said, "just a lowly model"-wondering, "When is Ozwald doing a woman's line?"), Cameron Silver, Casey Johnson, and Wanda McDaniel, the head of Armani in L.A., whose Oscar-winning producer husband Al Ruddy is about to start shooting Camille this summer with Sienna Miller and James Franco in Toronto.

Meanwhile, Ben Silverman, who produced the series for Sundance, detailed how it all happened: "I used to run the William Morris office in London, so I knew Ozwald. We thought watching him make inroads in the U.S. market would make a terrific show. We're still shooting as we speak, but trust me, he does make inroads. Just not in the ways you'd think."

"You should be seeing a lot more well-dressed men around here very soon," Boateng declared. If they look like him, we'll be happy. And hey, Ozwald-where's that women's line?
MERLE GINSBERG