Even during the coronavirus pandemic, when WFH had legions gravitating toward nap dresses, sweat pants and the like, Paul Smith donned a suit pretty much every day.
“I never even thought about it because I don’t think of it as a constricting, difficult thing. I think, ‘Oh, wow, I’ve got all these pockets,’” he said, fishing out of one of them a faded black-and-white childhood photograph of him on the beach with his grandfather, who wore a pale suit and tie, the trousers rolled up over the knees.
And so Smith set out to lionize tailoring with his frisky, crisp and very chic spring collection, which knocked the stuffiness out of suits with dusty colors, silky fabrics and styling ideas galore — from fish lures as a boutonnière to Hawaiian shirts as an unexpected underpinning.
Smith recently refreshed his design studio with young talents, who again gravitated to his ’90s archive with its boxy shirts and blazers, slouchy pants, big flap pockets and the offhand cool of a messenger bag slung crossbody.
The collection seduced with the roomy swagger of the tailoring, natty vests, colorful knits and the way Smith and his design team put everything together, always well shy of the suit’s corporate associations.
Before the show, Smith noted that “in the U.K., a lot of the young bands are really wanting to wear suits again.” He also pointed out that Harry Styles turned up at the Brit Awards earlier this year in a pinstriped suit, white shirt and striped tie — and followed that up with tailored ensembles for his current “Together, Together” tour.
The designer cited a recent uptick in his suit and necktie sales. “We’ve also noticed that where we’ve used tailored fabrics for casual styles, that’s really on the up,” he said, mentioning the likes of a chore jacket in a sumptuous wool from Loro Piana as an example.
His spring show featured jeans-like trousers and Bermudas in suiting fabrics, which fit that compelling formula.
In Smith’s estimation, dressing up is the way to go these days, especially given the youth unemployment problem plaguing many European countries.
“If you’ve got the skills, but you want to visually impress, then my advice would be, ‘Don’t arrive for the job interview in a hoodie or a casual look,’” he said. “Look like you mean business.”
But feel free to knock out the stuffiness.
