Paul Smith – Spring/Summer ’19

Modern tailoring, unique photo prints and styles inspired by cycling star in this colourful campaign to launch the spring/summer ’19 season.

Inspired by a series of subcultures that have influenced Paul’s work and sparked his creativity over the decades, the new spring/summer ’19 collection challenges and subverts familiar sartorial codes.

Having pioneered the use of photo print in the early stages of his career, Paul revisits the process from a unique personal perspective for spring/summer ’19. After discovering a box of his father’s old photographs in his London design studio, Paul was struck by the striking images and distorted colours, which shone fresh light on familiar scenes.

From this flash of inspiration, the ‘Paul’s Pictures’ print series developed. The original images have been combined and coloured to create bold new prints. These unique collages have then been reproduced in large scale on bold nylon outerwear, woven into key knitwear designs and printed onto leather accessories for men and women.

Contemporary British tailoring remains at the core of every Paul Smith collection, as Paul looks to refresh and reinvigorate the suit for men and women.

Informed by his personal experience of softening the stiffness of tailoring in the early 1980s, this season reintroduces volume in silhouette, coupled with the lightness that’s provided by modern fabrics, to create tailoring that is smart yet relaxed.

The colour scheme and styling references the irreverence of the punk movement, looking back to a time when the icons of the genre began to adopt and co-opt traditional British tailoring in the late 1970s.

Paul’s love of cycling also finds expression in the new collection and emphasises the continued influence of sportswear on his design work, as technical fabrics are incorporated to deliver greater function and comfort.

Hints to cycling range from the obvious, as fully functional cycling jerseys are styled with classic tailoring, to more subtle references as monochrome check patterns on knitwear, socks and women’s bags referencing a famous jersey worn by one of Paul’s sporting heroes, the British cyclist Tom Simpson.

Paul Smith
16, The Royal Arcade
W1S 4SR
Tel: 0203 205 1135
www.paulsmith.com