The collection paid tribute to Tuscany
For 30 years, Paul Smith has spent his summers in a terracotta farm house surrounded by trees in a Tuscan countryside pocket known to locals as the Secret Valley. Last year marked the first time he hasn’t been able to visit. His hankering for his summertime sanctuary was evident in his spring/summer 2022 men’s collection – the second since Sir Paul decided to give his brand a cool, contemporary makeover – which romanticised his memories of those summers in urban summer silhouettes painted in colours and photos of Tuscany. “The citrus, the dawn-to-dusk, that lovely sharpness of the sun in the early morning,” he said on a phone call, waxing lyrical. “The terracotta colour of my house, the blue of the Tuscan sky. It’s all rather poetic… but to part from that, the clothes are so great! Easy to wear.”
It was a post-lockdown wardrobe
The physical invitation to the digital show gave away the overall motif: Smith sent out a camper’s survival kit which included a flask, coffee apparatus, and a torch. “I’m pretending we’re free again,” he said with a sigh, referring to the semi-lockdown that never seems to end. “It’s loosely based on being outdoors. I was hoping it would be true by the time the collection came out.” Smith, who used to go camping in Yorkshire’s Malham Cove in his early twenties, riffed on the codes of outdoor staples, turning them into the tailoring he’s recently given a more youthful, roomier and street-smart cut. “The man I swim with is a huge fisherman, so I have all these conversations pretending I know what he’s talking about,” Smith quipped, pointing to a jacket informed by fishing.
The physical invitation to the digital show gave away the overall motif: Smith sent out a camper’s survival kit which included a flask, coffee apparatus, and a torch. “I’m pretending we’re free again,” he said with a sigh, referring to the semi-lockdown that never seems to end. “It’s loosely based on being outdoors. I was hoping it would be true by the time the collection came out.” Smith, who used to go camping in Yorkshire’s Malham Cove in his early twenties, riffed on the codes of outdoor staples, turning them into the tailoring he’s recently given a more youthful, roomier and street-smart cut. “The man I swim with is a huge fisherman, so I have all these conversations pretending I know what he’s talking about,” Smith quipped, pointing to a jacket informed by fishing.
It was based on outdoor uniforms
Garments drew on the technicalities of outdoor pursuits, elevating – and, by proxy, obscuring – them into new manifestations. A parka lifted the zigzag stitching of sails and the rope of mountaineering, and transformed them into the properties of streetwear. A half-and-half jacket combined a transparent nylon top with a linen bottom. A coat and a pair of shorts in parachute nylon were dyed with a colour technique that looked like tie dye, merging Smith’s expert area of prints with something that felt like rave. The shoes used in rock climbing inspired his new – and quite strong – proposal for the trainer market. Throughout, he injected the collection with motifs from Tuscany: his own photos of clouds and sunflowers, which had been Andy Warhol-ed into trippy colour effects, so things never felt like a postcard collection.
Garments drew on the technicalities of outdoor pursuits, elevating – and, by proxy, obscuring – them into new manifestations. A parka lifted the zigzag stitching of sails and the rope of mountaineering, and transformed them into the properties of streetwear. A half-and-half jacket combined a transparent nylon top with a linen bottom. A coat and a pair of shorts in parachute nylon were dyed with a colour technique that looked like tie dye, merging Smith’s expert area of prints with something that felt like rave. The shoes used in rock climbing inspired his new – and quite strong – proposal for the trainer market. Throughout, he injected the collection with motifs from Tuscany: his own photos of clouds and sunflowers, which had been Andy Warhol-ed into trippy colour effects, so things never felt like a postcard collection.
There were shout-outs to cycling
Sir Paul may not be a fisherman, but he is an adept cyclist. He paid tribute to his lifelong sport of choice in cycling tops created like real cycling jerseys and printed with his photographs. He said he’d simply style them under a four-patch-pocket suit. “When I’m in Tuscany, cycling is what I do most days. I’ve got Bradley Wiggins’s old bike that he gave me years ago, so I cycle out in Tuscany. There are quite a lot of professional cyclists near Lucca, and when I’m out in my ordinary white T-shirt and shorts and trainers, and they come flashing by me, I’m so relieved that I’m not head-to-toe in real cycling clothes,” he laughed.
Sir Paul may not be a fisherman, but he is an adept cyclist. He paid tribute to his lifelong sport of choice in cycling tops created like real cycling jerseys and printed with his photographs. He said he’d simply style them under a four-patch-pocket suit. “When I’m in Tuscany, cycling is what I do most days. I’ve got Bradley Wiggins’s old bike that he gave me years ago, so I cycle out in Tuscany. There are quite a lot of professional cyclists near Lucca, and when I’m out in my ordinary white T-shirt and shorts and trainers, and they come flashing by me, I’m so relieved that I’m not head-to-toe in real cycling clothes,” he laughed.
Paul Smith collaborated with Porter
The collection featured a bag collaboration with Porter, the Japanese cult label from the 1960s, which interpreted the Paul Smith stripe on some of its most familiar shapes. “One of the reasons I have been so successful in Japan is because, in the early ’80s, I became very good friends with the son of the Yoshida family, who owns Porter,” Smith explained. “When I went to Japan he was really helpful in introducing me to people, so I was very fortunate to get right into the heart of young Japan in 1982.” For Sir Paul, it wasn’t just a collaboration but a love letter to a place, which, like Tuscany, is close to his heart. “I’ve been to Japan over a hundred times, and last year I couldn’t go at all. I was bereaved. I’ve missed three trips. I’m very affectionate about Japan.”
The collection featured a bag collaboration with Porter, the Japanese cult label from the 1960s, which interpreted the Paul Smith stripe on some of its most familiar shapes. “One of the reasons I have been so successful in Japan is because, in the early ’80s, I became very good friends with the son of the Yoshida family, who owns Porter,” Smith explained. “When I went to Japan he was really helpful in introducing me to people, so I was very fortunate to get right into the heart of young Japan in 1982.” For Sir Paul, it wasn’t just a collaboration but a love letter to a place, which, like Tuscany, is close to his heart. “I’ve been to Japan over a hundred times, and last year I couldn’t go at all. I was bereaved. I’ve missed three trips. I’m very affectionate about Japan.”
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