Paul Smith: Beyond Fashion into Visual Culture

Paul Smith, the British designer, is profiled as a visual culture polymath whose career spans over 50 years. Opening his first shop in Nottingham in 1970, he created an early concept store blending Kenzo and Margaret Howell garments with records, prints, and flea-market finds. In the 1980s and 1990s, he pioneered photographic prints on fabrics, creating shirts with seed packets, apples, and spaghetti plates. His Signature Stripes, launched in 1997, merge abstract painting with road signage. Smith's Covent Garden studio functions as a contemporary archive of found objects. He has collaborated with the Rolling Stones, David Bowie, Oakley, and Ahluwalia. A new collaboration, Paul Smith loves Barbour, merges the classic waxed jacket with Smith's vibrant aesthetic. The Paul Smith Foundation supports emerging designers through a Fashion Residency at Studio Smithfield in East London; the 2025/26 cohort includes Masha Popova (Ukraine), Harri (India), Petra Fagerström (Sweden), Joyce Bao (China/USA), Renata Brenha (Brazil), and Eden Tan. A new partnership with the Council of Fashion Designers of America (CFDA) brings a US designer into the program for the first time. At the Japan Mobility Show 2025, Smith will unveil a new collaboration with MINI, presented during the BMW Group Keynote on October 29, 2025, at the West Exhibition Hall.