Fashion’s Sir Paul Smith: ‘The pandemic has been a good kick up the bottom,’ says British designer as he celebrates 50 years in the industry
- Talk during lockdowns about shaking up fashion cycles and stopping endless discounting has been welcome, Smith says, despite little action yet
- This month he launched the Paul Smith Foundation digital platform to share his knowledge on developing a creative business
When someone has been in business for 50 years like Sir Paul Smith has, it is easy to assume that they might have run out of “firsts”. The first shop, the first collection, the first award – all those milestone are decades behind them. But in 2020, the 74-year-old British designer is living through his first pandemic.
As is customary in England now, our Zoom call begins with: “So how’s lockdown been for you?”
“For me, it’s been at this table for weeks on end – 16 weeks alone – because the whole building was empty,” says Smith from his London office. Behind him, messy bookshelves and fabric swatches radiate a chaotic energy. “I was self-isolating, so I’d get in my car on my own, drive here, open the building up and spend hours on this phone talking to Hong Kong, Paris, all my staff around the world trying to figure how the hell we’re going to keep everything going!”
Born in 1946 in Nottingham, central England, Smith was a keen cyclist before a road accident curtailed his racing career. It was during his recovery that he made friends with a bunch of young creatives and found himself on a new path – one that would lead him to a knighthood, 3,000 sales points worldwide and a multimillion-pound lifestyle brand. As Smith always says, “Out of bad, good things can come.”
