LONDON — When Reece Yeboah was young he traveled from his home in London to Accra and back again a few years later. The journey was the making of him as a man, and as a designer.
His debut collaboration with Cos is set to hit shop floors this week and he’s called it “Metamorphosis” after his coming-of-age experiences in Ghana.
In an interview, the designer said that when he was 11, his mother handed him a one-way ticket to Accra to “straighten me out” because he was messing around and underperforming at school.
She saved for months to purchase the ticket, he said, and was convinced that life in Africa with extended family would help him grow up.
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She was right. The years he spent in Accra transformed him and he returned to London with renewed purpose.
Living in Africa, he said, “gave me a sense of how important family is” and a sense of perspective, too.
“I learned what it is to struggle — and not complain. I took freezing cold bucket baths, carried water on my head and walked miles to school. I missed the luxuries of London,” said the designer, who returned to the U.K. a few years later.
He studied fashion design, styling and founding the streetwear label Saint London Ltd., which had a pop-up at Selfridges in 2018. He worked as a stylist and later launched his signature collection, which blends streetwear with soft tailoring.
Yeboah said his collection for Cos, a division of H&M Group, is a tribute to his mother’s spirit and her ambitions for him.
He’s mixed dark hues with the bright yellow of Ghana’s flag and his jackets and shirts include butterfly and pinstripe designs. The collection features caps, beanies, knitted hoodies, a varsity jacket, and structured jackets in wool check fabrics.
Yeboah said that while he may have started by designing a men’s collection, the result is more gender fluid, with silhouettes based on the Cos signature shapes.
His favorite parts of the process, he said, were sample-making, concept building and “seeing that creation come alive from the sketch.”
His ambitions are big. “Nine figures in six years,” he said. “That’s what’s on my bedroom wall. It’s not about the money. I want to be about to say ‘I’ve done that,'” said Yeboah, and he’s certainly off to a good start.
Last week, Yeboah and Cos staged a fashion show in London with some of the new looks and sitting front row were three high-profile cheerleaders: Riccardo Tisci, Naomi Campbell and Edward Enninful.
Prices for the Cos collaboration range from 35 euros for the 100 percent organic cotton Rising Star T-shirt to 350 euros for the wool-blend check coat.
The limited-edition collection will be available exclusively at Cos stores internationally and on the website from Wednesday.