Did you know Paul Smith was a sports enthusiast with dreams of becoming a professional racing cyclist before he became a fashion designer? Those visions flourished until he was 17 when he had a terrible accident and spent six months in hospital. During his recuperation Smith met new friends and talked of Mondrian, Warhol, Kokoshka, and David Bailey and listened to the Rolling Stones and Miles Davis in a local pub; in time Smith realised he wanted to be a part of the colourful artistic world of ideas and excitement. Within two years, he managed to open his first boutique in Nottingham in 1970 and showed his first menswear collection in Paris under the name Paul Smith in 1976.
For his Spring/Summer 2017 collection, Paul Smith reminisces about his teenage years when he would travel from Nottingham to London on most weekends, crashing on a friend’s floor in Notting Hill before heading out to explore the city. Smith was there for the first Notting Hill Carnival and saw it as “an amazingly energetic time to be in West London”. Having called West London his home since the 1970s, the collection features 1960s tailor references cut from highly breathable Italian wool, with super lightweight construction that makes looking sharp feel effortless. Today’s contemporary edge comes from sportswear shapes and diverse casting that mirrors the multicultural society of London.
Additionally, the collection utilises West Indian warmth that flows from the Caribbean colour combinations of yellow, green and red, which come together to create a series of stripes and a tropical tartan fabric that appears throughout the collection.
