Paul Smith Perfume

Paul Smith was born in Beeston, Nottingham in 1946 to Harold Smith, a draper and Irene, an amateur photographer. He had no aspirations to enter the world of fashion, dreaming only of becoming a professional racing cyclist. At the age of 16, having left school with no qualifications, his father Harold dragged him to a local clothing warehouse where he began a menial job, still dreaming of a career as a cyclist. At the age of 17 however, Smith was involved in a serious accident which saw him hospitalised for 6 months and made his cycling dreams impossible.

During his hospitalisation, he met some new friends and arranged to meet upon his release. By chance this meeting was held in a pub popular with students from the local art college. It was here that he met Pauline Denyer, an art student who was to become not only his wife, but a driving force in the fashion career Smith eventually pursued.

A friend from Art College opened a small boutique and Smith not only found and decorated the premises, but also became its manager. In 1970, Smith opened his first boutique with a small amount of savings and encouragement from Denyer. He began to take evening classes in design, and with help from Denyer, was able to create the designs he wanted. He showed his first collection in Paris in 1976 under the Paul Smith label. By this time Smith had outgrown his tiny back alley shop, and searched for new premises finally finding one in an old bakery in the then run-down Floral Street area of Covent Garden. After borrowing heavily to refurbish, Smith began selling quirky penknives notebooks and pens as well as clothing, and it was he who made the “filofax” trendy.

Smith coined the phrase, “classic with a twist” to describe his personal style. In 1982, he opened a second shop off Bond Street. His international success came in 1984 when he signed a licensing with Itochu, the Japanese trading house. Smith had been selling his collection in the USA on a wholesale basis for 10 years, and in 1987, he opened his first shop there, in New York’s West Village. In 1991, he opened a Japanese flagship store in Tokyo and franchised the first Paul Smith shop in Hong Kong.

In 1993, Smith took over the traditional (established in 1885) but bankrupt work-wear company R.Newbold and quickly incorporated many of their famous cuts into his collection. With brief modification, he sells now the "4239 shirt" (42 inches on the back, 39 in the front) of R.Newbold under his name. This shirt was originally designed for agricultural labourers in Lincolnshire. His first women’s collection was introduced along with a range of watches in 1994, as part of a licensing deal with citizen.

In 1995, the London-based Design Museum opened a restrospective of Smith's 25 years of work in the fashion business called True Brit, marking the first time this renowned museum devoted an entire exhibition to a single fashion designer. The year 2000 saw the launch of Paul Smith fragrances, in a licensing agreement with Inter Parfums.

Smith was knighted in the 2001 Birthday honours list, and on the same day married Pauline Denyer.

Paul Smith is global - the collection is wholesaled to thirty five countries and has fourteen shops in England. His shops are found in London, Nottingham, Paris, Milan, New York, Hong Kong, Singapore, Taiwan, the Philippines, Korea, Kuwait, U.A.E. – and over two hundred throughout Japan. Smith remains fully involved in the Japanese business; designing the clothes, choosing the fabrics, approving the shop locations and overseeing every development within the company. He also has impressive and diverse showrooms in London, Paris, Milan, New York and Tokyo.

Smith continues to be an integral part of the company; he is both designer and chairman. He is continually involved in every aspect of the business and as a result, Paul Smith Limited retains a personal touch often lost in companies of a similar size.

Paul Smith Perfume

Paul Smith perfume