Paul Smith launched his brand in 1970 with a small multi-label store named Vêtements Pour Homme in his home town of Nottingham, England. Fifty years later, Smith sits atop a multinational fashion business with shops across the UK and locations in cities around the world. The Paul Smith 50th Anniversary Capsule Collection celebrates the British designers success with some of his favorite prints.
In the 1980s, Smith was one of the first designers to use photographic prints in menswear – establishing himself as a pioneer of print design. These early graphics inspired the 50th Anniversary Capsule Collection. The capsules most striking graphic is a spaghetti print he created for the AW94 collection. The original spaghetti shirt was the product of Sir Paul’s love of Japanese culture. On a trip to Tokyo in the 1980s, he visited an area of the city famous for producing fake plates of food to display outside restaurants. “I bought the plate of spaghetti in the 1980s and it sat in my office for many years”, he remembers. “Then I discovered photographic printing. There was a particular company in Italy that were doing this wonderful printing, so one day I photographed the spaghetti and it became this rather kitsch shirt print.” The spaghetti print was an instant bestseller and helped establish photo prints as a signature of the Paul Smith brand. Along with spaghetti, there is an apple graphic from SS90 and a selection of floral prints – a recurring theme for the brand since the 1970s. The graphics appear on hoodies, knitwear, sweatpants and accessories.
Shop the 50th Anniversary Capsule Collection now at paulsmith.com.
