COS — the London-based fashion brand offering stylish “elevated essentials” for both men and women, with stores across the world — has been on the shopping lists of Indian fashionistas while travelling for a long time. And they have been wishing the brand were present in India to make it easier to shop from it. Well, their prayers have finally been answered. The first COS store in India will open doors in New Delhi in October!
Last month, the COS team, led by design director KARIN GUSTAFSSON, hosted an announcement bash with select media at Masque in Mumbai and also gave us a sneak peek into the collection. Conversations and celebrations over a specially curated sit-down dinner at Masque in Kala Ghoda familiarised us further with the brand. t2 was part of the select set and we took the opportunity to chat with Gustafsson about the brand ethos and more.
Adrien Brody in a look from the COS spring/summer line
Gustafsson joined COS as an assistant designer in 2006, when COS was merely a concept yet to be fully shaped or realised. After just one year she was promoted to a designer in the classic section of womenswear, and in 2011 she accepted the role head of womenswear design. From 2016-2019 she held the position of creative director at COS, directing the brand’s creative development. In 2020, Gustafsson returned to the design team once more, in the newly created position of design director, leading the creation and development of all COS collections. Excerpts from the t2 chat...
Welcome to India! Shoppers here are very excited about your brand coming to our country finally. So you tell me, how are you feeling about bringing your brand here?
We feel really excited and hoping that we will be well received in this market.
You are launching your store in Delhi (at Select Citywalk in Saket) first. Do you have plans for other Indian cities?
For now, we don’t. It was sort of something that took quite some time and I think we for now only have the new store.
Please take us through the design philosophy of the brand...
So our philosophy is to sort of always focuss on “less is more” and form plus function, and we believe in a collection that feels refined and comfy, but also has a relevance today and for many seasons ahead. So we like everything to feel comfortable, easy to wear. Something that can be worn in many different ways, and therefore we last for long and have that sort of extra emotional value that it’s something that you buy and you keep.
Tell us about the collection you are launching here with...
Yeah, so when we’re launching this collection, you will find a bit of a 50s inspiration for womenswear. And for men, we have sartorial menswear and utility. We also have sort of women’s pieces that are ever so slightly utility inspired. And we believe in this sort of inky dark colours. So black, dark brown, or brown, darkest gray, blue, and green...
And I saw a lot of interesting fabrics in the collection displayed...
So for the fabrics, we want to use a lot of textures and everything, from sort of like a shiny wool to a more boiled wool and flannel, but also cottons with a bit of a sheen, silks, and then we also believe in stitches. So for men we have a basket wave stitch, for example, and we use a lot of checks, both in menswear and womenswear. So check patterns, different sort of grid patterns.
And what about the silhouettes?
I would say for womenswear, for the new collection we have the waist and the broad shoulder. But we also have the sort of slim, straight up and down, sort of almost 90s-feeling silhouette. And then one that is ever so slightly rounded. For men, we believe a lot in this sort of like effortless, straight-falling silhouette. We also believe in something that is a bit more slimmer, and then we have this sort of like effortless, cool, rounded, falling, both pant and jackets.
COS is described as a brand of elevated essentials, right? So who’s the woman or the man you see as your clientele?
So we think of our customers as someone who has a big city mindset. We believe that our customers are aware of what’s going on around them. They are culturally aware. They enjoy visiting the different shows and finding out new things that are happening and being in the know in that way. And we believe also that they have a quite strong sense of style themselves. So they know what they like and they do sort of wear their clothes with confidence.
And any particular age bracket you have in mind?
Not really. We tend to talk about an ageless customer. It’s more the mindset that I just described to summarise our customer.
You have been with the brand for a long time, like from the very inception of the brand. What of your personal design sensibilities do you bring to the brand?
I think I really enjoy sort of reinventing the classics as a designer. And I also really enjoy working on draping, it is an important part of the womenswear collection because it sort of shifts and elevates and invents new silhouettes. I think we are quite a silhouette-driven brand, especially for womenswear.
What are your personal favourite pieces from this collection?
So I think I always like a good sort of outdoor piece. We have this beautiful wool cashmere, which has a lot of sheen because of the cashmere, and also the sort of ripple texture is beautiful. It’s got the softer shoulder and then it’s got these big plates which give it that sort of elevation, but it still feels effortless. I think our cashmere is always a versatile piece to own because you can wear it with skirts, pants, it lasts for a long time, and it also has that sort of effortless sculptured feel.
In terms of suits for the autumn, we have done this sort of like with cigarette pants, which I think is good. I also think that we always need a new shirt... you always want to wear a shirt, like with everything... I think the shirt is a key piece.
For menswear, I think we have some light leather jackets... like (shows one) this is an investment piece... in an aubergine colour. I think our more sculptured knitwear for men will be nice in the Fall, and then our suiting. So we have both the casual suit and a smart suit. It’s like very timeless. It’s got a bit of sheen. Classic! It’s light, so it doesn’t feel too much effort to wear. Then we have suits where we work with utility elements, it’s got that soft brushed wool. I think for men utility is important, and we always have some for women, too, but I think there’s so much interesting elements to draw from that. So, yeah, it tends to be important for us.
Can you tell me a bit about your accessories line?
Yeah, so we have bags and shoes, some belts and jewellery. And we also tend to do sort of scarves, silk scarves, woolen scarves and hats. The leather goods, they’re all designed in-house and we got specialist designers and also sort of technicians to help us to perfect them, so they will be as perfectly fitting as possible.
Are you familiar with Indian fashion as such?
I’m not really, really familiar, but I know a little bit, and yesterday, the team took me out, so I saw a concept store that was really interesting.
Before coming to India with the brand, did you have any apprehensions about the market or anything you had to research about the market?
I think for us, it’s obviously that anticipation where you feel like will the Indian market understand, and like cost, and why would they (buy). But I think that’s always part of it, but now we feel the team is confident that, you know, New Delhi will be a good place. And it’s a smaller store, so it will have more of a boutique feel in a way, and it will be a smaller part of the COS collection.
GLIMPSES FROM THE COS SPRING/SUMMER 2025 COLLECTION:
A collection note from the brand says: “Defined by craftsmanship, the COS spring/summer 2025 collection explores precision in cut and signature detailing. In womenswear, creative expressions emerge through softly sculptured silhouettes and draped elements, while tailoring is reimagined with a deconstructed sensibility. Echoing Renaissance art, cascading fabrics create fluidity, and ethereal transparency reveals glimpses of the body as lightweight materials move effortlessly.... A pared-back utility style in menswear takes centre stage, emphasised through functional details. Classic styles are revisited with sleeveless tailoring, bringing a fresh perspective to traditional designs."
GLIMPSES FROM THE COS AUTUMN/ WINTER 2025 COLLECTION CAMPAIGN THAT WILL BE SHOWCASED AT THE NEW YORK FASHION WEEK ON SEPTEMBER 14
The autumn/winter 2025 collection is described by the brand as “a modern wardrobe where effortless elegance meets understated ease. Rooted in timeless design principles, the collection is defined by fine materials, precise tailoring and subtle yet striking details. This season, rich experimentation across fabric and finish brings depth and new dimension to the collection.
A refined palette of dark, inky hues — black, gunmetal, khaki and deep navy shades — sets a sophisticated foundation. Textural contrasts — matte versus sheen, shearling against leather — are further explored through croc and pony-effect finishes, introduced across ready-to-wear and accessories to enable considered yet refined layering.