Tyrone Dylan Susman starts every morning with three green juices, an espresso and a workout in a home gym he’s positioned directly opposite his bed. “So I have motivation from the moment my eyes open,” he says. A designer, stylist, muse and overall right-hand confidant to Rick Owens, Susman’s strict regimen isn’t too surprising once you see his physique.

His abs look like they’ve been chiselled out of stone, recalling the physiques of Greek statues that curve and pose on museum plinths, and his arms twist downward like strong, Amazonian vines. Discipline may have manifested in Susman’s physical form, but it’s also been a longstanding feature of his psyche. His ability to stay laser-focused on a goal, paired with stacks of raw talent, has secured and solidified his leading place in the Prince of Darkness’s court of phantasmic warriors.

Growing up in Melbourne, fashion seeped into Susman’s world early on. “My dad had his own brand and store in the ’80s, and my grandmother was extremely fabulous and glamorous – as is my mum today – so fashion was always part of my upbringing,” he says. The more Susman was sucked in by the allure of cut and drape, the more people wanted to help him dive in even further. “My next-door neighbour was a couturier, and I loved watching her sew gowns. I would play with the fabric remnants and pin them onto Barbie dolls to make outfits… Family friends would take me to exhibitions, like Versace and Gaultier, and then buy me books on fashion illustration and designer history,” he says.

These influences coalesced and crystallised as Susman grew up, leading him to apply to the fashion design course at the Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology, where he graduated with honours. After a period of “partying too much, juggling too much and trying to save enough money to move overseas” – working in nightclubs by dark and a retail shop by light – Susman’s discipline pulled him back onto a focused track. Investing in new sewing machines and churning out one-off leather pieces to generate some cash to reinvest in new work, his dedication caught the eye of a close friend of his mum. “[She] loved what I was making and saw how demanding it was to design, pattern-make and sew every piece myself. She believed in my vision and offered to fund the brand so I could expand production,” he says. “It was incredibly generous, but I knew that if I accepted, I might stay in Australia – and that was never my dream. Instead, her belief in me motivated me to make one final range, shoot it, sell it and get myself to Paris, where the designers I admired most were based.”

It was 2017 when Susman eventually made it to the French capital. Six months in, he had his first interaction with Owens at the Pavilion of Art and Design Fair. Having studied Owens at university, Susman felt compelled to introduce himself. Following a short interaction, where he asked to send Owens his design portfolio and the designer accepted, Susman was hired shortly after. It was quick, and to the rest of Owens’s team, who had never seen him hire someone like that, slightly jarring. Likening his start at the brand to being “thrown into a bear cave”, Susman had to learn quickly. “I remember my first day at the factory. Rick had told the textile department that I loved working with exotic skins and asked them to show me around. I was taken into a white office with a long white table and fluorescent lights. They rolled out a giant python skin, put down a blank notepad and pencil, and told me to design something to show Rick. I was absolutely terrified.”

He proved himself over time and, during the pandemic, when it wasn’t possible to fly the external styling team out to Paris, Owens looked to Susman to step into the role. “Because I was working by Rick’s side from the beginning of each season, developing the collections, I understood the mood he wanted,” he says. Susman also possessed an instinctive understanding of Owens’s vision, which was useful for making him a dab hand at his new job. This cohesion was actually what made Owens hire Susman in the first place. “Rick later told me he recognised in me a balance of glamour and trash he identified with, that tension between refinement and something rougher, which has always been part of his world,” he says. Since that first collection, Susman has gone on to style every womenswear and menswear show that Owens has executed. “Being trusted with that responsibility – four shows a year, some of the biggest and most watched shows on the fashion calendar – is one of my proudest achievements,” Susman says.

Alongside styling, Susman regularly stars in Owens’s campaigns and walks in his spectacular shows. The brand’s most recent catwalk for SS27, where the searing Parisian sun blanketed the Palais de Tokyo, its rays illuminating the shadowy, distorted silhouettes, was his favourite to date. “It was brutal and beautiful at the same time,” he says. “It felt like one of those moments where the physical reality of our work and the fantasy of the show collided.”

Fantasy is at the heart of everything Owens and Susman do. Crafting pieces that can transform the wearer into a leather-clad gladiator or an intergalactic insurgent without feeling costume-y has made Owens, and those who surround him, cult figures. For Susman, the beauty of an Owens piece doesn’t just lie in how it looks – it’s how it makes you feel. “Like armour,” he says. “Depending on my mood, I might wear severe, tight, or exaggerated silhouettes, dramatic pieces that completely change the way you walk, stand and hold yourself. They give you a sense of strength. Towering boots or chunky gladiator heels affect how you carry yourself immediately. Other times, I prefer softer, draped pieces that feel almost like a gesture of clothing – barely there, light and effortless. That contrast is what I love.”

Contrast is exactly what Susman leaned into when formulating his plan for this feature. “The mood board had a few different directions, which we ended up merging,” he says. “We wanted to explore face prosthetics and play with the idea of an alter ego – something almost AI-generated, alien, beautiful and slightly unsettling through the hair, make-up, skin and contact lenses.” Shot in his Paris apartment, every aspect of the shoot, from start to finish, was personal to Susman. “Hair and make-up were set up in the kitchen, furniture was being moved around, my house disco playlist was blasting and a little tequila was involved.” What emerged is a body of work that feels authentic, every element bound together by the seductive pull of a singular vision. Armed with a love for expression that tracks back to childhood and a commanding aura that convinced one of fashion’s most beloved visionaries to take him under his wing, Susman’s allure is magnetic. Prepare to be sucked in.

Taken from 10 Men Australia Issue 28 – FUTURE, LEGACY, HERITAGE – out NOW. Order your copy here.

Photographer AYTEKIN YALCIN
Fashion Editor and Talent TYRONE DYLAN SUSMAN
Text BELLA KOOPMAN
Creative direction and production EMRAH SECKIN
Sittings editor VERONIKA HEILBRUNNER
Hair DUFFY and CLEMENT BILLON
Make-up BEN SUN
Face prosthetics ALYSSA CELINE BERREZ
Body prosthetics MAYA PALERMO
Hair inspiration BERNARDO MARTINS
Photographer’s assistant YOANN DETREZ
Fashion assistant SHAI-LEE SCHECHTER
Special thanks to ELISABETTA DI MASO

@tyrone_dylan