An Englishman, stood in the middle of Milan, talking about Morocco, India and especially Egypt – which are a few of the more than 60 countries his clothes are sold in. The man is Paul Smith, who turns 80 next year – but who is throwing the focus more sharply on the fact his business is itself 55, which is hardly sprightly in fashion terms. “And still independent,” says Smith, proudly. Which, considering the label owns more than 130 stores and has 3,000 points of sale around the globe, is quite something.
Yet even with that sprawling empire complex, Smith is a trader at heart. Even today, if you stop in on the weekend to his Albemarle Street store – which, with its ever-swirling mix of antiques, art, miscellaneous curiosities and colourful clothes, is one of the best shops in London – Smith is often there grilling the staff and rearranging the merch. Old habits die hard. So, it’s fitting that part of this collection was inspired by the markets in each of those aforementioned exotic locales, unifying them and lassoing them to Smith’s home of Nottingham, where his first store still stands.
A portfolio of hand-tinted lithographs of Cairo had been gathering dust in Smith’s studio before it became this season’s source of inspiration. “This book I bought 20-odd years ago when I was in Cairo,” Smith said. “It somehow came up the pile.” That didn’t mean mummy-wrap tailoring or scarab buttons, however. There were a few charms and scribbled postcard-feeling prints, “Trinkets – souvenirs, slightly kitsch,” said Smith. “I’ve been to Cairo – but I’ve been to Marrakech, I’ve been to India. It’s very much about that, that mood of tourism.”
Mostly, the silhouettes were relaxed tailoring – eased silhouettes with sharp shoulders, a slight homage to another place, Italy, where Smith makes most of his clothes. “A lot of the styles have got a hint of 50s about them,” he said. “Going to these places where a lot of the fashion is still from the past.”
This excursion was a good excuse for Smith to exercise his grasp over colour mixing – peppery Indian pink, spiced Egyptian and Moroccan tones. Silk shirts could somehow subtly blend four colours in harmony – burnt ochre with a cuff reverse in pink, a pearlescent violet button and a chartreuse buttonhole. A multicoloured print of abstract shapes was inspired, Smith said, by reeds on the Nile – although their forms nodded to the work of Pablo Picasso, whose eponymous Parisian museum showcased an exhibition artistically directed by Smith in 2023.
More travel: Smith said the salon-style space he created was a throwback to the couture shows he and his wife Pauline attended in the 1960s – when couture houses showed daily to clients, and there was a requirement for ladies to wear white gloves. Albeit in Smith’s, we were sat on upturned plastic packing crates rather than spindly gilt chairs. You can take the boy out of the market …
