paul smith: designboom interview

paul smith
portrait © designboom

since the menswear collection first showcased in paris by british fashion designer paul smith
in 1976, the 'paul smith label' has expanded into 23 different collections including womens wear,
accessories, fragrance, watches, pens, rugs and jeans. designboom interviewed him recently.



paul smith london - the byard, slim fit suit


paul smith’s trademark miller brogues, part of the 'dip-dye' range, 2009
the uppers of these shoes have been immersed in dyes and tumbled in large wooden drums to
dye the upper leather, the lining and the stitching for intense colour.

flower details on the inside and colored strings


a new collection of tableware to celebrate the 50th anniversary of stelton, 2010.
smith has re-worked designs from the stelton archives and this arne jacobsen cylinda collection
giving them a refreshing and contemporary update.

'when I first started to dress women it was really because
there was really a lot of demand from women who were
girlfriends or wives of my male customers. so they would
often buy a sweater or a raincoat or a jacket, back
when the trend was wearing things very big.
then when it came a time when people started wearing
things a bit smaller they said to me 'oh, can we have
some women's clothes'. in the beginning it was just about
men's clothes for women, but just a 5th of women who would
want that. recently it's been changing alot. I still like the
masculine look on a girl the best, but I can't survive just
doing that so I have to do a bit more feminine pieces as well.'


read the interview here