'You've never really made it in fashion. Nobody cares how good you used to be. It's about today and tomorrow.'
Describing his journey from leaving school at fifteen with undiagnosed dyslexia to his life changing accident that would end his dream of becoming a racing cyclist, Sir Paul's journey has been anything but conventional. From his immersion in the strange new world of the 60s London art scene to meeting the love of his life, Pauline, who would set him on a path towards building the global fashion empire. After fifty years of continual trading, Paul still goes to his shopfloor every Saturday to meet customers.
Filled with his signature wit, warmth and eccentric flair, Paul takes us from the humble beginnings of his first tiny shop in a Nottingham alleyway – tucked behind a dark, damp corridor – to opening his first shop on Floral Street. His stories of dressing rock stars, actors, and athletes and designing identical black suits for David Bowie's four-piece band gives us a unique perspective on British fashion, art, music culture in the last half century.
He opens up about the turning point of his career in 1982, when he took a bold leap into the Japanese market and how this experience not only transformed his outlook on customer service but led him to establish a one-of-a-kind licensing agreement that remains in place to this day. The book will be filled with his business wisdom, some of which has become very popular on social media.
At the heart of it all is his wife, Pauline, his muse, mentor and confidante – the woman who shaped his life and career. A student at the Royal College of Art, she introduced Paul to visual arts, cinema, and took him to his first couture shows in Paris, including the groundbreaking show where Saint Laurent launched le smoking, the first ever trouser suit for women.
This is the story of a truly unique British icon whose company went global and how a young boy from a modest upbringing in Nottingham, guided by his father's lasting message of hard work and repairing everything by hand, became a symbol of innovation and creativity.
Sir Paul Smith was born in Nottingham, England on 5th July 1946. An avid cyclist until he was seventeen, when a road accident put paid to his competitive dreams, through a new friendship group Paul found himself amongst a new world of creatively minded young people and from there embarked on a life-long journey of discovery and exploration in design, music and fashion.
From its origins in one small shop in Nottingham, England, Paul Smith has grown into a global business, selling to five continents, over seventy countries and 3,000 shops. Paul Smith remains an independent company, with Paul Smith himself holding the majority stake. Paul was Knighted in the 2000 Birthday Honours and appointed Member of the Order of the Companions of Honour in the 2020 Birthday Honours for services to fashion.
He is the Official Tailoring Partner for Manchester United Football Club. In 2022, in co-partnership with MUFC a
limited-edition Paul Smith Stan Smith adidas trainer was released. In 2023, Paul curated a major retrospective of Picasso works at the Musée Picasso in Paris. The exhibition has been seen by over 200,000 people.
Richard Williams writes about sport and music for the Guardian. He is the author of The Last Road Race, Long Distance Call: Writings on Music, The Death of Ayrton Senna and Enzo Ferrari: A Life. His previous jobs include chief sportswriter for the Independent, editor of the Independent on Sunday's Review, editor of Time Out and the Melody Maker and head of A&R at Island Records. He has written for Granta, the TLS, Mojo, The Word, and many other publications. In A Certain Style, Sir Paul Smith shares the extraordinary story of his life and career for the first time.
