‘Classic with a twist’ has long been at the heart of British fashion icon Sir Paul Smith’s design ethos. ‘It’s famously overused, but it’s the best way of explaining what I do: nice quality, good proportions, well-made but always with that touch of tongue-in-cheek humour,’ he explains. Take his new ‘Everyday Life’ range of furniture, including a sofa, armchair, pouf, coffee table and leather banquette. Designed and made in collaboration with Boffi | De Padova and debuted during Salone del Mobile in Milan this June, the pieces share the same sartorial touches you’d expect from one of Smith’s beautifully tailored suits.
Cushion seams contrasted with zigzag stitching, stone tabletops etched with Smith’s signature stripes, and leather – used for belts, wrapped around the backs of seating to lend further structural support, or as saddlebags hooked over armrests for storage – lend quirky but understated fashion finishes. These touches add to the collection’s barely-there charcoal-tinted ash frames and linen, cotton, wool or jute upholstery which is available in earthy hues, from midnight blue and brick red to ecru.
‘I wanted the collection to feel modern and timeless but comfortable,’ enthuses Smith of the materials used, such as the recycled feathers and kapok seed fibre used for the padding. ‘When you put your bottom into the corner of the sofa, you just don’t want to get up.’ The collection, Smith continues, is ‘hand on heart, completely me.’ He drew on ‘years and years of observation about proportion and scale – a lot learnt from tailoring – and mixing rough and smooth, bright and dark,’ as well as focusing on the importance of ergonomics to suit his own six-foot-plus frame.
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This personal touch – and Smith’s belief that ‘you can find inspiration in everything’ – threads throughout everything he designs. Like the way each of the four scents of his new home fragrance collection of candles and diffusers, presented in reusable glass vessels in two-tone hues (developed in collaboration with United Perfumes and perfumers Céline Barel and Meabh McCurtin) offers up a perfect olfactory snapshot of a treasured moment in the designer’s life.
The ‘Early Bird’s’ scent hints of patchouli and iris, capturing the freshness of a London morning, rain or shine, when Smith gets to work at six after his daily dawn swim. Then there’s the herbaceous ‘Daydreamer’, a reminder of summer cycle rides through the Tuscan landscape where Smith has a farmhouse ‘in the middle of nowhere, surrounded by wildflowers’. The parchment paper and inky notes of ‘Bookworm’ pay homage to the ‘two grillion books in my office,’ he laughs, while the Haitian vetiver in ‘Botanist’ takes him right back ‘to the day I opened my very first shop in Nottingham on October 9, 1970’. It was on that auspicious day that his then girlfriend, now wife, Pauline bought him a bottle of Carven Vétiver to help disguise the damp smell of a burst waterpipe. ‘I wanted to design a collection that people would want in their home,’ he adds. ‘One that’s not overly trendy or too imposing.’
That’s a desire that is also apparent in Smith’s other new launch (it’s fair to say that this 76 year old has been busy!), a collection of ‘things for the home’, including crewel work and embroidered cushions, bath towels, and soft wool and cashmere blankets woven in the UK. All of the designs play with Smith’s ‘optimistic and happy’ hallmark colourful stripe. Originally created as a one-off shirting fabric in the nineties, this signature print proved such an instant hit it is has since been deployed across everything from socks and beanies to Caran d’Ache pencils, carpets for The Rug Company, the painted parts of an Anglepoise lamp, and even, most recently, a hot air balloon.
Like the longevity of his iconic stripe, having celebrated fifty years in business in 2020, there seems to be no stopping ‘this young lad from Nottingham,’ as Smith still thinks of himself. Whether designing a new fashion collection, reconfiguring an electric Mini or getting ‘goosebumps’ working with De Padova, he’s not about to slow down soon. ‘I still go to work every morning, I still love my job, I still have fun,’ he says. Thank goodness he’s happy to take us along with him for the ride. (paulsmith.com, depadova.com)
