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In keeping with this season's preoccupation with the sombre, we have pulled Toronto's Kardinal Offishall out of the colourful sportswear of the hip-hop star and turned him into Mr. X – a shadowy but elegant figure in a dark, decaying city. Think of him as a kind of Edwardian blade runner – an old New Romantic with a street punk edge.

The dandy, this season, plays up opposites: Heavy footwear is paired with technofabrics; wool and leather give him a luxurious feel.

This is a man influenced both by Sid Vicious and Oscar Wilde, with a Guy Ritchie reference thrown in: It's a sharp suit with a rough leather jacket. Or work clothes worn with a luxurious shaggy coat. It was this kind of gritty polish that appeared on the runways at Zegna and Mihara Yashuhiro.

It's a look that can shape-shift from casual street wear to subdued formal with a couple of minor changes: the addition of a wool waistcoat, a satin stripe down the trousers, a velvety fedora.

Of course everything is all black – the better to move from skyscraper to belfry in. Call the look Millennial Dandy: It's not, as is often said of hip-hop, “urban” – it's urbane.

STYLE TALK: KARDINAL OFFISHALL

What did you think of the clothes we put you in?

It was a look that I've never actually tried before. It was more of a dark rock look. But once I put it on it was actually pretty crazy. It was actually pretty dope. The funny thing is, over the last little while I've been changing my dress code abit, so some of the things like the high-end, European-style overcoats were pretty dope. I was actually trying to buy one of them from you after the shoot… It was definitely mood clothing. As soon as you put it on you have this weird gothic feeling.

Could you see yourself wearing it?

Oh, I definitely could wear it, but not regularly. Maybe to an awards show or something like that… We just did a video shoot for one of the songs on the new album – Not 4 Sale, which is in stores now – in Miami, and I was wearing a lot of Louis Vuitton and Dolce and Gabbana. The thing about that higher-end stuff is that it looks good but it's definitely hard for somebody who is almost 6'4", with long limbs, like myself, to find something that actually fits. You can let the designers know that there are a lot of tall people like myself who are fans of clothes and they need to make them in bigger sizes.

How would you describe your regular style?

High-end casual. I guess you could call it a snobby look… upper-class casual.

Would you describe it as a typical hip-hop look?

No. But hip hop is in a real transitional phase. You have the whole skater look, then you have people like Kanye who are…who knows what you'd call that. But I'm developing my own style that works for me. You'll see this in the music video: it's all about the colour combinations. Sometimes I'll do burgundy with turquoise and a splash of orange. Or I'll slip on a pair of antique denim jeans, with a Vuitton shirt with a Polo vest over top. And then a bowler hat on top of that.

So no all-black clothing?

I can see wearing all black, but as long as it's splashed with some colour or accented with some jewellery. I don't wear too much jewellery, but I do have one signature piece that I had designed for me by a friend. It's a chain. In rap music you tend to have the same old pieces: a Jesus piece, a cross, a rosary, all this random religious stuff that most of them don't believe in anyway.

Are clothes important to you?

It's important to play the part. Right now, I have a certain image that I've got to live up to. They have to know I'm coming before I even get there.

Russell Smith