If you've been to the shows, you'll almost certainly have seen James Goldstein in the crowd. Perhaps you thought he was there by accident. If you haven't seen him in the flesh, you've probably wondered who the cowboy in the all the front row shots is.

Well, you're about to find out more about LA's most enigmatic resident (and that's saying something). Not only that, but he has revealed that he will be launching a collection inspired by his own style at the spring 2014 shows with a Montenapoleone-based presentation in Milan next month.

Goldstein, whose crocodile trousers, neckerchiefs and ever-present Stetson are as much an institution as Suzy Menkes's rolled coiff, cuts something of a mysterious figure in the industry. One of those insiders who has become a personage in his own right ever since the democratisation of the international collections, the street style scrums, the throwing wide of the doors to the industry's inner sanctum.

Rumours about his past abound: some say he made his money in selling trailer parks, others real estate; that he's had afairs with Hollywood sirens; that he's the biggest single investor in US basketball. In fact, he likes that almost as much as he likes fashion.

'My experience as a spectator has taught me to understand the nuances of clothing design, including fabrics, colors, construction, and overall creativity,' he told Fashionista yesterday, discussing the launch of his line, and revealed that the first fashion show he attended was a Jean Paul Gaultier catwalk collection thirty years ago. Since then, Goldstein estimates he has been to almost 200 a year.

One thing the industry likes is unique and singular, eccentric characters. What remain to be seen, however, is how much both it and those who follow its obsessions hawkishly like the idea of dressing like the Fashion Cowboy themselves.