LONDON — Paul Smith is back in Japan this week as the headline designer at Rakuten Fashion Week Tokyo, showing his fall 2025 men’s and women’s collections, and promoting a collaboration with Niwaki on specialist Japanese gardening tools.
The fashion week is sponsored by the Tokyo-based tech conglomerate Rakuten. Smith’s show, which takes place on Wednesday night at the Tokyo National Museum, is part of Rakuten’s “by R” project, which aims to support the Japanese fashion industry.
While he regularly visits Japan for work, Smith said he hasn’t staged a show in the country for more than a decade, and he can’t wait for the moment.
“We’re including women’s as well as men’s, and there will be around 40 looks in total, plus the new Barbour collection,” said Smith, who also created an exclusive orchid print based on a photograph by his late father for the occasion.
Backstage at Paul Smith Men’s Fall 2025 collection in Paris. Smith will be reprising his menswear presentation, and adding women’s looks, for a runway show in Tokyo on March 19.
Kuba Dabrowski/WWD
“Japan’s traditional flower is a chrysanthemum, but the other two things you see a lot in Japan are the bonsai tree and the orchid. They’re very delicate and minimal, and they definitely fit the Japanese aesthetic,” the designer said in an interview shortly before boarding the plane to Tokyo.
The fall men’s collection, which Smith presented in Paris in January, was filled with prints based on the elder Smith’s color-drenched photographs — and the designer’s own doodles — which appeared on matching shirts and ties.
The fall collection also channeled the easy glamour of the young David Bailey and Terence Donovan who often dressed in heavy clothing and layers for outdoor fashion shoots.
That collection featured heritage fabrics that had been tossed in a tumble dryer for a “dry, scruffy, vintage” feel, according to Smith. It also included thornproof fabrics, space-dyed wool, and the Prince of Wales check pattern.
Smith will also be showing his women’s collection, which he usually presents in a showroom, and the 23-piece Paul Smith Loves Barbour collection, which features a Friesian cow print and which lands on shop floors in October.
A Barbour look from Paul Smith men’s fall 2025 collection. Smith plans to put the new Barbour looks on his Tokyo runway on March 19.
Courtesy of Paul Smith
Ryo Matsumura, senior vice president, managing executive officer, commerce and marketing company, at Rakuten Group, described Smith’s participation in the week as “such a pivotal moment.”
He added: “We believe that partnering with world-class brands is the key to boosting the Tokyo fashion scene’s presence internationally, and we’re excited to see Paul Smith’s influence resonate globally, carrying Tokyo’s unique style with it. Going forward, Rakuten Fashion is committed to forging an even stronger partnership with the brand.”
Japan is like a second home for Smith, whose longtime minority investor and licensing partner is Itochu Corp. Smith has 150 stores in the country, and it’s his largest market outside of the U.K., generating 40 percent of business.
He’s often greeted like a celebrity, and customers love his cheeky sense of humor, soft tailoring and use of colorful British menswear fabrics.
In a 2020 interview with WWD, Smith said his Japanese business survived for so long because he fully integrated into the country and didn’t think of Japan as just another place to make money.
“I was humbled to go to this place called Japan, which in ’83 was a place you didn’t think you’d ever visit in your life. A lot of the designers who were going there at that time had very big egos and very big requests about chauffeur-driven cars and first-class travel. I was just fascinated to go,” he said.
A Paul Smith store in Japan.
Courtesy Photo
“I was interested in the culture and food. I didn’t moan about jet lag or about working long hours. I went about 100 times or maybe 120 times in the Eighties,” Smith added.
During an interview earlier this week, Smith said he’ll never forget the faith that Itochu had in him when they first partnered in 1984.
“They trusted me, and trusted the fact that I could open shops and make them work,” said Smith, adding that Itochu, one of Japan’s largest general trading companies, never asked him to alter his collections or aesthetic to suit the Japanese consumer.
In addition to the show, Smith plans to visit Kyoto to see his store there, and do a series of press appointments with the founder of Niwaki, Jake Hobson. Niwaki, which offers specialist Japanese gardening tools, is based in the U.K. with a store in London.
Paul Smith at Claridge’s hotel in London, where he designed the 2024 Christmas tree.
Courtesy
Smith teamed with Niwaki on a co-branded collaboration that launched last year. The collaboration includes a tri-colored leather tool bag, and secateurs with colored leather wires wrapped around the handles to mimic the Paul Smith signature stripe. The collection also includes scissors and a weeding knife.
“It’s a very cool collaboration,” said Smith, adding that he and Hobson share a love of “all the wonderful garden tools and beautiful, amazing secateurs for trimming bonsai trees” and other delicate plants and flowers.
