Paul Smith : a career in fashion interview

"How I started was that I had no interest in fashion. I wanted to be a racing cyclist. My dad was an amateur photographer, so I'd had a camera since I was 11. There was a creative aspect to my life just through my dad. I was very close to the art school. There were art students, architecture, photography, graphic design, painting and fashion. Through conversation and going there and chatting to people, I just became fascinated by the world of creativity. I helped one of the girls I met, whose father was starting, helping her start, a little boutique, that was a keyword then, boutique, in Nottingham, in the middle of England."I can design and make the clothes but I don't know how to run a shop or open the shop". So I said "I did". The interesting thing about that is the fact that you had the energy, the enthusiasm, and the willingness to try and work out how to open a shop. Remember you can be a creative person, but you still have to do lots of very down-to-earth things: find a shop, talk to a real estate agent, talk to a lawyer, solicitor, make a lease, understand how much the rent is going to be, decorate the place and then, eventually open a shop. I did all of that and that was a fantastic learning curve. I met Pauline, after three years of working in the boutique. We fell in love. She came to live with me and, at home on the kitchen table, she was a qualified fashion designer that had been taught couture fashion. So how to not just design clothes, but how to make clothes, and the importance of proportion, scale, etc. That is key in my opinion, because so much fashion, or many creative processes, or jobs these days, is people put so much emphasis on networking and getting to know people. But you also need to know your job, and the great thing with Pauline on the kitchen table, she taught me how to cut a pattern, how to... we had a small sewing machine at home... how to make a jacket and then, slowly through her I learned how to design clothes. I left school of 15, I didn't have any further education. After a few years of being a shop assistant, she said to me "you know we could have a little shop maybe or we could you know design some of our own clothes for a shop". We saved up a little bit of money, really a small amount of money, and couldn't find a shop, too expensive, too crazy, but eventually found a room which was at the back of a friend's shop, and with no windows. We called it a shop. It was just open two days a week. Now the key thing about this, what I'm about to tell you, is the fact it was only two days a week. My little shop was full of clothes that were quite particular for a provincial town. Nobody really wanted them. A few people did, but not many. So what I did was Monday Tuesday Wednesday Thursday, I worked doing any job I could. Freelance designer, stylist, photographer, because my dad colorist designing fabric. I learned so much then, and that was what I now call learning by doing it, and I would recommend that to anybody who's looking at this.And so, I did that and then eventually opened my shop six days, eventually started a small collection with just two shirts, two jackets, two pieces of knitwear, came to Paris with a small collection, rented a tiny little hotel room, and sent some invitations out for people to come and look at the collection. Nobody-nobody, Monday nobody, Tuesday nobody, Wednesday nobody, Thursday one customer! And then suddenly, I was off. That was the beginning of Paul Smith. Pauline and I had designed things which now I wish we could have again because there were a jacket in velvet, which now is quite common, shirts made out of printed flowers, then very unusual, now very normal, color, embroidery, things that were just different.

Slowly we started to get a reputation with bands, with musicians, because obviously the clothes were very different, so they were quite good for stage as well. And then I went on to make clothes that we sold to other people. One of my first customers was here in Paris, a shop in Paris. But then I started to work with Led Zeppelin, and later on David Bowie, The Stones, all sorts of musicians and even now, I'm still working with bands like The Lumineers from America, Jake Bugg from England, and Chris or Christine and the Queens, Patti Smith. But that you know, that obviously that came very slowly.But the key thing is the balance between surviving, paying the rent, income, learning, and something which is more to do with people... attention seeking things, that people were interested in what you do. If you only do the Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday thing, is boring and if you only do the very elitist thing, you'll probably go bankrupt. But if you can get the bank, the balance right of the two, then you might survive. But I'm always saying "of course, we should know what the other designers are doing, and other brands are doing". You need to know what they're doing in order to know what not to do.Because, yes you need to know that the trend is big, baggy, or the trend is floral, or the trend is bohemian, because shops around the world, we sell in 73 countries. Shops around the world are going to want to have things that they call "on trend". But then, after that, in my case, it's always been easy to get ideas because I'm very curious person. I feel I learn to look, and see a lot of people look, but they don't see. What does that mean?

What it means is that you, you observe the texture of a wall, you observe pattern next to pattern, you observe color - orange next to red is really feisty, but white next to blue is very tranquil. So you just need to train your eyes to look and see. So you start with them, normally start with some sort of a theme. The theme could be anything. It could be an exhibition you've seen by Picasso, or it could be a movie, or it could be a period of time, it could be a person. Then, in my case, I discuss that with my assistant designers, they say "I don't really like that", "I like this" and "I like this aspect over there".then, we start to choose the theme, we're quite famous for printed fabrics, and not a lot of people are, most people just use black and white and navy them and that's fine too, but we're famous for prints so... Whatever we've decided on will influence the print, then we'll do color, a buildup of color, and obviously that depends on the season, because you know in the winter you tend to have more muted colors, in the summer more cheerful bright colors, but you always need the classics, you always need black, navy blue, white, you always need those. And then, you have something called "a range plan" or a "collection plan".

So, how many jackets, how many trousers, how many shirts, how many dresses, and that's based on really what you think your collection size should be, and also one of the big dangers, one of the big mistakes, many many designers make, is they want, they have too many ideas, and the collections are too big, and then when they come to try to make those, if they get orders on them, each order is too small, so then the manufacturer won't make them because the quantity is too small. So, my advice would be keep the collections as reduced as you can, without compromising the statement that you're trying to make. And then, you've got more chance of being able to find a manufacturer that would make 50 shirts or 2,000 shirts, rather than six different shirts and you only sell 20 of each, and then they'll say "no I'm not making those". So then, you design the collection based on big, small, short, flowery, bohemian, pop, anything you want. And then, you make samples, and we're sitting in one of my showrooms which is full of samples. Then, you hope to get some clients in, who are shops around the world, or just in Paris or wherever. Then, they come in and then, obviously you've done the costing, you've got the price, you know how much the fabric costs, how much it costs to make the garment, what sizes it comes in, how many colors it comes in. You have a book with them all in. Then, you hope that the customer likes what you do."

https://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2013/jun/10/paul-smith-design-museum-exhibition