Paul Smith regularly draws inspiration from his travels, but for his latest collection, presented in Paris on Wednesday afternoon, he focused a little closer to home.
His father, Harold B. Smith’s amateur photo book was his starting point. Guests entered the venue through a mock darkroom with buckets of emulsion, hanging negatives, and a stainless steel sink. A booklet containing some of the work of senior Smith, a founding member of Nottinghamshire’s Beeston Camera Club, was left on each seat.
Rather than a standard catwalk show, the models appeared in groups of three as Smith discussed each look. This intimate approach was in sharp contrast to the giant glasses that had become the standard in high fashion. At Smith’s gatherings, the guest list hovered around 200 people. There were nearly 2,000 people at Louis Vuitton the night before.
“We’re not one of the big groups, so what can we do?” he mused when asked about his approach backstage. “An asset is a person who can chat about things.”
And he had a chat. Smith may be just a few years away from his 80th birthday, but he shows no signs of switching to the slow lane. Instead, he bounced around, fascinated by fabrics, cuts, glove lines, shoe heights, and his father’s dirty doodles, which he used as prints on his knitwear and tailoring.
At one stage he pulled out a squawking toy cow from the bag. In another photo, a plastic egg came out of a shoe. His signature bright gray bulges add to the mad professor vibe. This was British eccentricity at its finest, only accentuated by the slightly confused French editor who kept a poker face throughout.
Smith said her father was a very observant man who often caught “the little moments that other people would miss.” This gene appears to have been passed down to Smith Jr.
He is a person who pays close attention to even the invisible parts. The corduroy pants were printed on the inside for a vintage effect, and the lining of the jacket featured an enlarged print of his father’s negative. The tie and shirt were designed in matching fabric, a technique he learned from his friend, the photographer David Bailey, who originally learned the technique while serving in the Royal Air Force.
Although these are clothes designed for modern men, Smith used traditional techniques and fabrics to ensure they will stand the test of time. Some trousers are made of thornless tweed and were originally designed to help hunters withstand thorns. The upcoming Barbour collaboration features a playful twist on its signature hoodie, with a removable hood that can be mixed and matched.
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He also dove into his archives. The snug knit jumper in satsuma orange and plum was born out of the close-fitting jumpers used to outfit clients such as David Bowie in the 70s. At the time, he couldn’t afford to make a jumper, so he instead bought one in the student section of his local department store.
The mood was upbeat, but between Brexit, COVID-19, the war in Ukraine (Mr Smith will close his Russian store in 2023) and the loss of duty-free shopping for tourists, the brand’s It was also a difficult time for him. The company has suffered losses for five consecutive years, with the latest figures showing a pre-tax loss of £5.3m for the 12 months to 30 June 2024 (compared to a loss of £2.3m in the same period last year).
