Designer Maxwell Osborne brings New York street style and what he calls ‘comfortable cool’ to his clothes
Designer Maxwell Osborne breathes new life into old fabrics, creating elegant, cutting edge designs from vintage fabrics. As the founder of the fashion label anOnlyChild (@anonlychild), Maxwell takes inspiration from his Jamaican roots and New York City street fashion to create looks that are totally unique. Along with the label’s head designer Kristy Chen, Maxwell designs outfits that are equally at home on the runway and on the streets of New York City.
Every piece made by anOnlyChild is one-of-a-kind. That’s because anOnlyChild almost exclusively uses vintage fabrics in its designs. “Each piece is different, each piece is personal, each piece has some love, because we treat the fabric with love,” Maxwell says. “We take fabric from everywhere and that’s pretty much the creative force behind the brand.”
When creating new designs, Maxwell and Kristy let the fabrics guide them. “We love looking at the textiles first before even getting into the garments,” Maxwell explains. “To really not know what’s going to happen when you get into the lab is very exciting. So taking two different fabrics that don’t belong together and mixing them and making them blend and work, and seeing these new colors and shapes, seeing these new colors and weights—it’s just been really exciting.”
Sometimes, the types of fabrics Maxwell is able to get his hands on totally end up changing the designs. “Since we play with fabrics that already exist, it kind of dictates a little where the garments will go because if you’re thinking heavy wool and you can only get access to sheer silks, it changes the thought process,” he notes.
Maxwell wants his designs to be simultaneously playful and serious. “There’s some values that we try to take into the brand. There’s a playfulness, but it’s also very serious,” he says. “You’ll see that in the shapes and you’ll see the pleats, you’ll see the ruching, you’ll see the oversized-ness because it’s the idea of taking someone else’s clothes and making it yours.”
For Kristy, anOnlyChild is all about repurposing and remixing old fabrics to create something totally new. “It’s all about a reinterpretation of what we already own,” she says.
When designing, Maxwell draws inspiration from his parents, who are both from Jamaica, and his New York City upbringing. “There’s an idea of a son of an immigrant. There’s a part of like, not having much, you didn’t really dress down. You dressed up,” he says. “I grew up in New York so there’s always going to be this element of street to it, but there’s also a tailored lane within our brand.”
Ultimately, anOnlyChild is all about uniting the past and the present. “What excites me is using references of my past to see it come from nothing to something,” Maxwell concludes. “As any designer, you’re mostly just excited to see people wear it, but in the creation phase of tapping into a memory or feeling and seeing it filtered through my eyes into somebody else’s body is just a dream.”
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