Tinie Tempah talks fashion, Prince Charles and aspiration

The Disturbing London collection is a surprise. There is not a bow tie (as worn to the Brit Awards 2011) or a silk scarf (Brit Awards 2012) in sight in Tinie Tempah's debut fashion line. The sharp tailoring and dapper-borderline-camp accessories which won Tinie the accolade of GQ's Best Dressed Man this year are replaced by graphic T-shirts, sweats and lots of grey marl. (Think Tinie on stage at a festival, rather than Tinie at an awards do.) Tinie, we said, explain yourself. And to be fair, he did. Tinie on the absence of bow ties in this collection: "I'm a 23 year old man. I don't wear suits every day. And I'm just starting out in fashion so this is about my day-to-day, where I'm coming from. This is the kind of fashion I grew up on - a good pair of trainers, great denim – and I will always love high-end streetwear. If I go to an awards ceremony, I wear a suit, of course I do. I am proud to be there. If there are young kids looking at pictures of me, I want them to feel that they should long for the opportunity to go somewhere really smart and wear a beautiful suit, rather than to reject that. But I'm only 23, I haven't been around that long. People need to get familiar with the brand. I mean, I love Kanye, but I didn't want to be like 'Everyone, look, here's my catwalk collection.'* When I feel like I'm renowned enough, I'd love to do a heritage-type line, but that takes time. My next fashion project is a Nike Blazer trainer that comes out for the Olympics." *Full disclosure: it was actually me who brought up Kanye West's Paris fashion week escapades. I was stirring. Tinie on music and fashion: "Fashion will be secondary, at least until I get where I want to be with music. I'm not there yet. I want to go global. The new album (Demonstration, out in October) sounds amazing, so much better than the first. I managed to get onto the record everyone I wanted to, apart from Adele. I've done something with Dizzee [Rascal] that I hope people will love. But music has also given me a fashion education: it was when I was 16 and doing my first gigs that I first thought about clothes seriously. I knew I couldn't just look like the audience, I had to switch it up. So I'd be trying to sort out a Lyle and Scott piece, or a bit of Aquascutum, or some vintage Nikes...something to make me look a bit different. And the last few years I've met stylists on shoots, fashion designers at awards ceremonies, and I've learnt a lot. On stage I keep it simple: I tend to wear layers of black in different textures. Maybe a leather jacket something with a bit of shimmer, a blackish matt jean, suede high tops." Tinie on London: "When you spend one day in London, you see so many different kinds of well-dressed people. You see the businessman who steps out of his taxi in his suit. You see the guy in a pop up store in Shoreditch who is wearing rolled up chinos and a big beard with his vintage Nikes. You see new season Louis Vuitton in the clubs. You see incredible African patterns on the streets. I love how mixed-up London is. In this city, a rich man with a house in Ladbroke Grove will have a block of flats opposite his house. It's different in New York, where someone growing up in Queens might never see the beautiful brownstone townhouses in Manhattan. The way everyone in London is right up against each other makes it very real to you growing up, the fact that people have different lives to you. And that causes problems, of course it does. But I was that kid in the block of flats, looking at the big houses and asking 'Mummy, why don't we live there?'. And I know that for me that was a positive, that I knew these other kind of lives were possible." Tinie on the musicians who can rock a look: "Pharrell Williams and Kanye West were the pioneers. They made it OK to be a rapper and to wear clothes that actually fit you and look good on your body, rather than huge jeans. Fashion makes a difference. Look at One Direction – when a band come off a talent show and storm America like that, you have to ask yourself how, right? And it has a lot to do with how aesthetically pleasing they are. Not just that they are good looking boys but that they know how to dress and are influencing people. That's got everyone paying attention." Tinie on sitting on the Fashion 2012 menswear committee: "I'm not sure what I'm there for, really, I guess they are pimping me out. But I love it – I'm on a council with Prince Charles. I'm throwing a party to celebrate [ London Collections: Men in June ], I'm going to invite him. I hope he comes. It would be cool to do a few sambuca shots with Prince Charles." Tinie on who he'd like to see wear his clothes: "Reggie Yates. George Lamb. Joe and Charlie Casely-Hayford. Rick Edwards from T4. David Beckham, in LA, in one of his vests with all his tats out – the girls would like that."