Massimo Nicosia
Designer/Architect/Britophile

In early September, on the second floor of the newly-opened Nicole Farhi flagship in London's Conduit Street, O:Man got to see the first, finished pieces from the label's autumn/winter menswear collection up close for for the first time since. So did the man who designed them, Massimo Nicosia. Thanks to a holiday in Mexico and subsequent trips to Europe and Asia in the line of duty, the cosmopolitan Italian, who came to the Anglo-French label after heading a venerable Scottish brand, hadn't previously had the chance.

In the windows and on the hangers, the refinements that you might have missed from the catwalk, let alone by looking at a photo, came to life. There's a quiet subversiveness in the way the garments' sober shades and sharp tailoring only reveal the secrets of their unusual textures when you get up close. That, as Nicosia explained, was part of the idea.

"I really like working with an idea in my mind so that the energy will be focused. Sometimes I work with a decade or a geographical area or something like that, but this one was very abstract: one of Nicole's favourite things, which is linen. Nicole loves linen, and of course linen is a very spring/summer yarn and fabric, and in this case it was really about reworking linen for this season."

Because he wanted that to work with clothes that were not only warm, but also had much stronger silhouettes than linen allows, the fabric was was mixed with wool, bonded with jersey, and backed by mesh in various pieces from the collection, which also includes some nice chalk-striped flannel and clever takes on modern winter staples like the pea-coat.

"When I joined Nicole Farhi I was asked to reinterpret Nicole Farhi", Nicosia recalled - hence the mix of classic suity structures and "soft and scrunchy textures." It's hard to imagine now he could have embraced the brief more emphatically. No wonder that, when his appointment was announced shortly before the new collection was seen in Milan in January, Farhi said that her new menswear man "has a sensibility very close to mine."

Yet he might never had got his hands on a pair of scissors in earnest had fate not intervened. Though "already obsessed with clothes" in his teens, Nicosia responsibly decided to study architecture in Florence. Soon after completing his six-year degree, he found himself designing stands and installations for special displays by brands like Prada and Zegna at the city's fabled men's fashion trade show centre, Pitti. That led to a job at Alessandro Dell'Acqua, where Nicosia learned quickly about every other aspect of fashion, from cutting to casting. "At an independent label", he says, "you have the struggle, but also the freedom, the creativity. It's not a corporation or a Cathedral of Art." Then he was recruited by Pringle of Scotland to extend its menswear image beyond argyle jumpers and polos, without leaving that past behind.

"As an Italian, I probably knew more about it than most Scottish people, because I was interested in the heritage, but also the environment of a brand like Pringle. Nicole Farhi is not so different in the way; it's a completely different approach to the collection, but in each case there is a lot of identity and in each case there is 'lifestyle', which is so clever for a brand. There are a lot of very directional fashion brands, but Nicole has built style rather than fashion, and that lasts."

Fashion student Jason, with his backwards baseball cap and nonchalant hands in pockets stance, looks like he's straight out of an '80s American cult film. We feel like we could have seen him back in the day staring alongside Matthew Broderick in Ferris Bueller's Day Off or lurking in the background of The Goonies somewhere.

Whatever his style reference really is, we'd like to think he's been trying to channel that vibe during London Fashion Week.

Because: What are you doing here today?

Jason: I'm working for Cassette Playa.

Can you describe your style?

I just really take my inspiration from people I see on the street.

Jason is wearing:

Ralph Lauren shirt

Vintage Jacket

Nike trainers

Johnny Marr
Songsmith/Salford Star/Shady Dealer

While a certain other former Smith still seems to make headlines every time he appears in public, Johnny Marr has a remarkable habit of getting on with things quietly. It's only when the 47-year-old guitar hero finally stops playing, and starts to reflect on it all, that you realise quite how many things.

In an armchair on a stage in a recording studio on the edge of Salford (whose university he joined as guest lecturer a couple of years back), Marr sipped a nice cup of tea and reflected on some of the gigs he'd had since The Smiths ended almost a quarter of a century ago: Electronic, The Pretenders, Americans Modest Mouse and Wakefield's The Cribs, whom he joined as guitarist and producer. He played on the score, and at the premiere, for last year's action epic Inception. "I remember sitting in the back of the coach on the way to Glastonbury with The Cribs," he said, "trying to practice playing the Inception music. I was nervous - I'd never played with an orchestra, rather than a band, before." Since then, he's remastered the just-released Smiths back catalogue.

Marr's willingness to work with other people's orchestras and bands (see also: Pet Shop Boys, Talking Heads, Girls Aloud) is testament to what an unassuming enthusiast he is. But it also feels a bit topsy-turvy that such a virtuoso has so often seemed willing to play second-fiddle. Which is why it is such a pleasure to see him finally play the Rock God when we met: not only did he confess he was prepping and refining songs for a 2012 solo release; he also shamelessly wore his sunglasses indoors.

That was down to Marr's latest endeavour, a collaboration with Ray-Ban called Raw Sounds, the latest in a sequence of annual music projects by the eyewear brand. Johnny's musical mentor role saw him first pick a quintet of unlikely inspirations (including an 18th century poem and a new, cascading Marr guitar part) and then share them with four hot music acts - including London's Tom Vek and effortlessly anthemic new Nashville retro-rockers Mona. The acts then recorded their own songs, based around Marr's muses.

"I loved hearing the songs they created," he said. "Art In Motion - it's a privilege." As well as recording the songs and filming behind-the-scenes documentaries on how they did it, the four acts (Best Coast and Au Revoir Simone round out the list) will conclude their involvement by playing live at specially-arranged shows in the US and UK in the coming weeks.

Also coming soon: Johnny Marr's own pair of Ray-Bans, which he designed in his other creative direction role for Raw Sounds. Due to go on sale next month, his "signature glasses", seen here, have gunmetal frames bearing his name, and light blue lenses.

In the download world, bands depend on brand projects like Raw Sounds to survive. Noting this, Marr recalled how even The Smiths were more relaxed about "selling out" than his hardcore heroes, like '60s folk rebel Bert Jansch. He was happy to work with Ray-Ban because, "When I first started out with The Smiths, I wore them all the time." In the early '80s, he worked in a Manchester shop that was the first in the city to get Ray-Ban glasses in - and made sure he ordered himself one pair so he could be the envy of his peers. Though only 1500 of his new design have been produced, we're confident he will end up with at least a couple.