:00:08. > :00:14.If you're ever in Covent Garden early in the morning, you might see
:00:15. > :00:17.a tall, sharply dressed man making his way to his office. An office
:00:18. > :00:42.like no other. This is Sir Paul Smith -
:00:43. > :00:46.photographer, prankster, collector of things weird and wonderful. You
:00:47. > :00:49.probably know him as Paul Smith, fashion designer and godfather of
:00:50. > :01:01.accessorised and deodorised metrosexual man.
:01:02. > :01:08.To him, things aren't just things, they're entertainment, ideas,
:01:09. > :01:11.inspiration. The most unlikely objects, a bird, a twig or a plate
:01:12. > :01:13.of spaghetti might transform into a suit lining, a shirt pattern or even
:01:14. > :01:26.a car make over. Here at the Design Museum in London,
:01:27. > :01:29.preparations are underway for a new exhibition which takes a journey
:01:30. > :01:33.through his archives and his designs. From his first tiny shop in
:01:34. > :01:38.Nottingham, he's built an empire that blazed a trail in Japan for
:01:39. > :01:41.other British designers. And his shops, selling his quirky take on
:01:42. > :01:48.classic British tailoring changed our sartorial landscape for ever. So
:01:49. > :01:52.come with me into Paul Smith's dizzying and eccentric world to find
:01:53. > :01:54.out what keeps his feet so firmly on the ground in the most faddish and
:01:55. > :02:31.fickle industry yet. Hello? Welcome to my brain. -- to my
:02:32. > :02:34.world! And is it true that this office is like the inside of your
:02:35. > :02:41.head? Unfortunately I think it's very true and slightly worrying!
:02:42. > :02:46.What is all this stuff? In my defence a lot of this is sent to me
:02:47. > :02:50.on a regular basis. I've got one person who has been sending me
:02:51. > :02:55.things for many many years. Really? Without a box. It's got stamps all
:02:56. > :03:00.over it and your address on. Was this actually sent through the post?
:03:01. > :03:07.Just like this. All these things are never in a box. What, 20 years?
:03:08. > :03:23.They've been coming from an unknown fan. There is nothing on it. It's
:03:24. > :03:33.just stuff. Oh lovely, have you worn these? No, I haven't. Whether you
:03:34. > :03:37.call it a hoard or a collection, what do the hundreds of things
:03:38. > :03:40.accumulating in his office - the bric a brac, toys, gifts, portraits
:03:41. > :03:45.and hundreds of books - really tell us about the man? If I asked you to
:03:46. > :03:52.show me something, something that meant a lot to you, where would you
:03:53. > :03:55.start? Oh gosh, probably the first brush with using my eye was through
:03:56. > :03:58.my father who was an amateur photographer and I think over here
:03:59. > :04:02.in my little camera collection I've got - this one here - his old
:04:03. > :04:17.Rolleiflex from 1958, which when he passed away he kind of left it me.
:04:18. > :04:20.He built a dark room in the attic of our house, and I'm not sure whether
:04:21. > :04:24.your viewers know about Heath Robinson, but it was one of those
:04:25. > :04:28.mad contraptions where there was a ladder on a pulley and you had to
:04:29. > :04:39.pull down the ladder and the pulley was handmade and the weight was lead
:04:40. > :04:42.poured into a paint pot. You've got this phrase about liking things that
:04:43. > :04:45.are childlike but not childish - so the child in you, the playfulness,
:04:46. > :04:52.that came from your childhood and from you dad, so your dad must have
:04:53. > :05:02.been fun. Yeah, he was really good fun. He was a trick photographer as
:05:03. > :05:05.well. He loves silliness. So that was me coming home from school one
:05:06. > :05:10.day and I was saying, "What's that in the garden, Dad?" and there was a
:05:11. > :05:14.white sheet from my mum's bed on the washing line that was the back drop,
:05:15. > :05:18.there were two wooden boxes and then a rug which he'd wired at the edge
:05:19. > :05:25.in an up and down movement and he said, "Just sit on that and pretend
:05:26. > :05:28.you're flying, son". And you never questioned it with my dad, so
:05:29. > :05:35.suddenly you were cross legged and going like this. And a month later,
:05:36. > :05:37.I am flying above Brighton Pavilion because he put the negatives
:05:38. > :05:54.together and superimposed them! So from that, he trained my eye, I am
:05:55. > :06:00.blessed with these eyes. His dad encouraged Paul to be spontaneous
:06:01. > :06:13.and capture passing moments on film. This is being born in the traffic
:06:14. > :06:24.jam in Tokyo, going along in a taxi. And then you get a scar.
:06:25. > :06:30.Today Paul really goes anywhere without his camera. He publishes
:06:31. > :06:35.snapshots on his Instagram Web page and his photos of all telephones or
:06:36. > :06:45.a parlour all blogs are as likely to find their way onto his fabric
:06:46. > :06:51.designs as flowers or stripes. You work together, your friends, too
:06:52. > :06:58.much like a model. It looks like a photo shoot, I wanted to look like
:06:59. > :07:01.you are just mates. These days he shoots his own ad campaigns. It's
:07:02. > :07:11.not that he doesn't trust of the photographers... Just that he knows
:07:12. > :07:21.what he wants. Head straight, head straight. That's it. And for Paul
:07:22. > :07:26.Smith, God is always in the details. Look at this jacket, I think it is
:07:27. > :07:32.from 1997. Very classic, fitted informants jacket. Then inside,
:07:33. > :07:38.sculptors right per Paul, and it has the pink, purple outside. That's the
:07:39. > :07:45.thing, something that is classic but this just moved around. I think Paul
:07:46. > :07:49.Smith came at a time when there was a whole upturn in changing the way
:07:50. > :07:53.men were looking at clothes. We're not talking about punks, people
:07:54. > :07:59.really extraordinary lives by people who wanted to go to work wearing a
:08:00. > :08:04.suit but a bit different. What is it about his character that is embodied
:08:05. > :08:08.in his clothes? I think Paul really designs everything for himself. I
:08:09. > :08:17.can see him wearing every single piece here, everything about it was
:08:18. > :08:24.expressed in the that Ledger jacket, that is Paul Smith. On the outside,
:08:25. > :08:33.you are sober and sensible, inside, you are bonkers. Which I love! I am
:08:34. > :08:40.not a common rotational person, -- confrontational person. So I like
:08:41. > :08:44.clothes that have a personality, our customer is somebody who is quite at
:08:45. > :08:47.ease with themselves and doesn't need things to draw attention to
:08:48. > :08:53.themselves, because they have an interesting head. So I always
:08:54. > :08:59.thought, do something that is acceptable but has that secret. If
:09:00. > :09:04.you had to describe these contradictions in your work, how
:09:05. > :09:11.would you describe them? I said to a journalist, I said, I think I'm
:09:12. > :09:18.between Savile Row and Mr Bean. The tradition, the draughtsmanship --
:09:19. > :09:29.craftsmanship, the love of good portion, quality, from Savile Row.
:09:30. > :09:35.And Mr Bean, or... My sound machine! Which I find very useful. I keep it
:09:36. > :09:36.in case nobody applauds at the end of a fashion show, I bring my own
:09:37. > :09:51.applause. Tonight, Paul is hosting the launch
:09:52. > :09:56.of 101, a book of photos by Scott Mitchell of Reggie Wiggins 's
:09:57. > :10:03.spectacular win in 2012 -- Bradley Wiggins. He has been friends with
:10:04. > :10:15.Wiggins since the early days of his track racing career. Have I got one
:10:16. > :10:18.of these? You can have mine. Smith has been a serious cyclist since his
:10:19. > :10:30.dad bought him his first bike when he was just 11. Hello! Look at this
:10:31. > :10:36.one. Do you want to lift it? It's so delicious. It's got no wait to it at
:10:37. > :10:41.all. We had a little boy from the local school, we had 22 children
:10:42. > :10:45.from the school here, he went up to this one adhesive, you lift it. Then
:10:46. > :10:53.he said, that's lighter than my sister! Look at that, it's so
:10:54. > :10:58.beautiful. You only have to look round the office to see Paul 's
:10:59. > :11:02.passion for cycling, the cycling jerseys, bikes and memorabilia. And
:11:03. > :11:12.he designed this bike in his trademark pink in 2010 for an -- a
:11:13. > :11:17.Danish charity. For a cyclist, that's what we like. You really did
:11:18. > :11:25.want to be a racing cyclist. What happened? Unfortunately, I was out
:11:26. > :11:33.training, a car and I collided. It was probably my fault, I was with my
:11:34. > :11:37.head down. I was broken -- I broke lots of bones, was in hospital for
:11:38. > :11:42.three months. I grew up a lot in that time, because it was awarding
:11:43. > :11:50.the hospital where they were eight coalminers who died while I was
:11:51. > :11:54.there. -- award in the hospital. There were motorbike accidents, car
:11:55. > :11:59.accidents, I think 16 people died while I was in hospital for three
:12:00. > :12:07.months. So it was a bit growing period for me. When the teenage Paul
:12:08. > :12:12.Smith left: 15 to become a warehouse assistant, Nottingham was still
:12:13. > :12:16.dominated by the coal industry. Men dressed like men. And then this
:12:17. > :12:25.happened. The rock stars of the 1960s
:12:26. > :12:33.introduced a new male role model. One that didn't dress like a
:12:34. > :12:36.middle-aged dad. And in 1967, when he met a graduate of the Royal
:12:37. > :12:39.College of Art from London, and already a mother of two, the young
:12:40. > :12:57.lad from Beeston really did grow up. So this is a really nice drawing by
:12:58. > :13:04.a fan from Japan of Pauline and myself, if you look at the back, you
:13:05. > :13:07.will see that this is from a photograph that was taken of Pauline
:13:08. > :13:17.and I in the 80s. In Italy, on holiday. It's a really great
:13:18. > :13:22.picture. So tell me, Pauline, you met her, fell in love with her, she
:13:23. > :13:28.changed your life completely? She is totally responsible for me being
:13:29. > :13:34.here now talking to you. She taught me about the importance of quality.
:13:35. > :13:40.Very much about the way clothes are built, the way clothes are made,
:13:41. > :13:45.what a dart does, what stitching does, it rolls the lapel, the
:13:46. > :13:55.importance of how this leave is put in. -- per sleeve. So it was really
:13:56. > :14:08.correct, the way of making clothes that she taught me, it stood me in
:14:09. > :14:11.good stead. As part of their exhibition, Hello
:14:12. > :14:16.my name is Paul Smith, the Design Museum are reconstructing his first
:14:17. > :14:29.Nottingham shop. All nine square metres of it - barely big enough to
:14:30. > :14:33.swing a hat in. Do it the same as the jacket.
:14:34. > :14:37.Paul started out selling clothes designed by Pauline. But in 1976
:14:38. > :14:41.from a hotel bedroom in Paris, he launched the first Paul Smith
:14:42. > :14:44.collection. As punk battled it out with glam rock, Smith's traditional
:14:45. > :15:00.tailoring with a twist carved out a very different masculine silhouette.
:15:01. > :15:06.Do you recall your first discovery of Paul Smith in the 80s? I remember
:15:07. > :15:09.walking into a shop in Bath I think around 1979, 1980 and seeing some
:15:10. > :15:12.clothes that didn't fit into that period of baggies and terrible kind
:15:13. > :15:16.of ruffs and platform heels. It was a suit which looked like it could
:15:17. > :15:21.have been made for a demobbed serviceman, but just with a twist. I
:15:22. > :15:24.didn't know who it was - and then I discovered there was someone called
:15:25. > :15:32.Paul Smith, it wasn't a label, there really was this guy.
:15:33. > :15:36.Welcome to the Nottingham Paul Smith HQ today - a square box of a
:15:37. > :15:46.building in an anonymous suburb - just like its neighbours. Or is it?
:15:47. > :15:51.If ever a business was created in the image of its maker, this one is.
:15:52. > :15:56.Here's his staff on the production line, having ideas, making clothes
:15:57. > :16:02.and distributing them. Or at least Smith's toy town version of it.
:16:03. > :16:10.Smith's humour and mischief tickles every corner of the business.
:16:11. > :16:16.Kingdom of boxes, is that what you call it?
:16:17. > :16:22.He's still loyal to Nottingham, but he's come a long way since that tiny
:16:23. > :16:36.basement shop. From nine square metres to this. 15,219. It's a huge
:16:37. > :16:41.warehouse, processing some five million items every year. And yet
:16:42. > :16:46.Smith's personality is stamped all over it. There's art works on the
:16:47. > :16:56.walls and unexpected Smithian touches.
:16:57. > :17:07.I would like to introduce you to my new friend. Either a hairdryer or
:17:08. > :17:17.alight. Have you ever seen at them like that? There's surprises around
:17:18. > :17:20.every corner. All of these old pieces of furniture, sourced by
:17:21. > :17:23.Smith's team, will be used to fit out new shop designs.
:17:24. > :17:29.What's the strangest thing that's come in here, piece of furniture? I
:17:30. > :17:33.think the camel takes a lot of beating, to be honest with you. I'm
:17:34. > :17:38.rather jealous, actually. I'd like the camel in my sitting room. I
:17:39. > :17:44.noticed a squirrel some time ago. There was a large squirrel, slightly
:17:45. > :17:54.scary. I like this one. We can have the
:17:55. > :17:57.glass further back. Furniture from Nottingham eventually
:17:58. > :18:01.travels to his stores around the world. Every one of the 370 shops
:18:02. > :18:08.has been individually designed by the in-house team in London.
:18:09. > :18:19.So is the main question now what the colour of that is?
:18:20. > :18:23.First on the agenda today is the colours for the glass casing of
:18:24. > :18:27.their new shop in Shanghai. One of 25 that are due to open in China
:18:28. > :18:31.over the next five years. That's in addition to shops in Europe, 265 in
:18:32. > :18:36.Japan and next year, they open their first shop in south America. Yes,
:18:37. > :18:39.like that, so it looks like it's not just a side but it's actually an
:18:40. > :18:50.aeroplane. How canny is he commercially? How did he get to be
:18:51. > :18:54.successful? I think if you're a young boy and you put your money
:18:55. > :18:58.into a tiny, tiny store in your local town and you have to sell
:18:59. > :19:01.things to keep going - you have to do an awful lot of Saturdays. He's
:19:02. > :19:05.obviously kept that, but he can sell, he knows how to sell. He knows
:19:06. > :19:08.a retailer's detail. He knows all the things that are important. Now
:19:09. > :19:12.if you look at his collections, there aren't things that you can't
:19:13. > :19:15.sell. Yes, there may be the odd jacket that stands out, but that
:19:16. > :19:22.will look great in the window. People are going to go in. They're
:19:23. > :19:27.being enticed in. He understands about detail. Most of his generation
:19:28. > :19:29.didn't. All of those British designers who are tremendously
:19:30. > :19:37.strong in terms of the design and the desire. They were not people who
:19:38. > :19:47.thought too often about selling the clothes.
:19:48. > :19:51.In the early 1980s, Paul Smith identified a new kind of customer, a
:19:52. > :19:57.man that was part dad, part rock star. He was still a bit hairy and
:19:58. > :20:00.smelly, but maybe he wasn't afraid of carrying a bag or wearing
:20:01. > :20:11.jewellery. Metrosexual man, I think is what they call him now.
:20:12. > :20:15.Today that market is huge. Your typical metrosexual has a few quid
:20:16. > :20:20.in his pocket and he likes to look and smell good. Smith's shops, with
:20:21. > :20:27.their art works and books, pander to his aspirations. And that's how he
:20:28. > :20:30.took his retail business to the next level, not just from selling clothes
:20:31. > :20:40.but from selling a lifestyle. There it is, the Filofax.
:20:41. > :20:45.For Smith it started in the late 70s when Pauline gave him an unusual new
:20:46. > :20:50.diary. This is one of the most memorable things about your shop.
:20:51. > :20:55.But the Filofax, it's difficult to believe it, at the time was such a
:20:56. > :20:58.modern invention. And basically what it was was a leather wallet and then
:20:59. > :21:04.all these different components that you can customise for your personal
:21:05. > :21:09.use. And it was for the army and the clergy and that was it.
:21:10. > :21:21.But Smith saw the potential to sell this niche product to the customers
:21:22. > :21:24.who bought his shirts and suits. I thought what do I think would really
:21:25. > :21:30.work, and it became the Paul Smith package. The diary, the address
:21:31. > :21:35.book. The various things I thought you should have in them. And I sold
:21:36. > :21:42.literally, eventually thousands of them. The Filofax took off like
:21:43. > :21:46.wildfire. Its message was clear. If you didn't have one, you probably
:21:47. > :21:50.didn't have much of a life. Smith was on the look out for other new
:21:51. > :21:57.designs that would put his shops ahead of the pack.
:21:58. > :22:00.When a vacuum cleaner was something you stuffed in a cupboard, Paul
:22:01. > :22:06.spotted a young British designer whose name would come to rival the
:22:07. > :22:16.mighty Hoover. Just wanted to show you this. Be careful!
:22:17. > :22:19.While British distributors couldn't stomach the pastel pinks and purples
:22:20. > :22:31.of the first bagless Dyson, Smith had a hunch it might just take off.
:22:32. > :22:34.Why would some sort of cool guy come into a shop and think, oh, yeah,
:22:35. > :22:40.that's just what I need, a vacuum cleaner. Almost all my customers
:22:41. > :22:44.were creative people at the time. Film directors, as they are today.
:22:45. > :22:49.And they just thought of that as an object in their room, rather than as
:22:50. > :22:56.a vacuum cleaner. I think that was why, and I mean, people just loved
:22:57. > :23:09.it straightaway. Smith first saw the Dyson during a
:23:10. > :23:12.trip to Japan in 1986. Before the economic collapse in the early 90s,
:23:13. > :23:15.the dominant Japanese business model - Keiretzu - was based on principles
:23:16. > :23:18.of collective efficiency and loyalty. Paul Smith tapped into that
:23:19. > :23:22.and the more playful side of the Japanese psyche. After all, this was
:23:23. > :23:25.the land of manga and Godzilla. What about this sort of huge appeal he
:23:26. > :23:35.has outside the UK. What about this appeal outside of
:23:36. > :23:38.the EU K, especially in Japan? Japan discovered Paul really very early in
:23:39. > :23:42.the days where people were still talking about Japan as number one.
:23:43. > :23:46.It had a booming economy in the 80s. They went shopoing for design around
:23:47. > :23:49.the world. And most of them took Japan for a ride. Paul didn't. He
:23:50. > :23:53.went out there, it really excited him. He loved it, he loved that
:23:54. > :23:58.sense of doing things really well. That sense of ritual and politeness.
:23:59. > :24:03.And he really took things seriously. They loved him back. You can't just
:24:04. > :24:08.entertain people. You have obviously got to appeal to them in other ways
:24:09. > :24:11.as well. In other words, he is a brilliant retailer. The shops make
:24:12. > :24:14.money and he has been very successful. Where is that true? I
:24:15. > :24:18.think Paul is brilliant at getting the best out of the best of ordinary
:24:19. > :24:20.things, making them special. He is fantastic at putting things
:24:21. > :24:39.together, making things belong. He is a surrealist.
:24:40. > :24:42.Going to Japan in the 80s, when very few foreigners were going there and
:24:43. > :24:46.almost nonel of the Paul Smith staff in Japan spoke any English, apart
:24:47. > :24:49.from schoolboy English. I used to sit through these meetings with jet
:24:50. > :24:53.lag, quite tired, and just needed an ice breaker. I needed something that
:24:54. > :24:57.just made it all happen. So one day I just brought out this suitcase and
:24:58. > :25:01.opened it up and said, I'm bored now, and I'm going to play with my
:25:02. > :25:04.train set. And they were really shocked. But then the second time I
:25:05. > :25:09.did it, the second meeting, they were saying to me, Paul, sir, where
:25:10. > :25:13.is train set? So it worked. So this is what allowed you to break through
:25:14. > :25:18.in Japan? They could finally see, they finally understood what Paul
:25:19. > :25:21.Smith was all about. Absolutely. It was sort of this very proper
:25:22. > :25:25.hard-working approach, but with this light heartedness.
:25:26. > :25:30.The Mr Bean, Saville Row combo struck a deep chord. Since opening
:25:31. > :25:34.his first Tokyo shop in 1984, he's become a cult figure in Japan with a
:25:35. > :25:44.licensing deal and a lucrative chain of 265 stores.
:25:45. > :25:47.He blazed a trail for other British brands like Burberry and Hunter and
:25:48. > :25:51.helped to establish Savile Row as the benchmark of British quality.
:25:52. > :25:55.Smith's eccentric personality and designs have won him a massive fan
:25:56. > :25:59.base. But never confuse his child-like enthusiasm with
:26:00. > :26:04.childishness. So how commercial are you? Here you
:26:05. > :26:09.are, you're incredibly successful still. But you're working in a
:26:10. > :26:13.commercial business, a very competitive business, the fashion
:26:14. > :26:17.business. How often do you think to yourself, hang on, Paul, this is
:26:18. > :26:21.fun, but is this going to make me money? My first shop in Nottingham
:26:22. > :26:36.was open two days a week and that was this. Purity, no compromise and
:26:37. > :26:38.then here. Hiding behind the back, was Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday,
:26:39. > :26:42.Thursday, which was doing anything that came along and also with the
:26:43. > :26:46.help of Pauline's income to earn money. So I always had that and to
:26:47. > :26:49.this day, I still have that. So I've got Albermarle Street, I've got
:26:50. > :26:52.Faubourg St Honore, Los Angeles. Certain shops that are very
:26:53. > :26:55.beautiful and special and not that commercial. And then I have a very
:26:56. > :26:57.substantial jeans business and a very successful accessories
:26:58. > :27:07.business. So even now I'm still doing what I did.
:27:08. > :27:10.He may not sell self-help books, but Smith's down-to-earth business nous
:27:11. > :27:13.has grounded him in the air-kissing world of fashion for nearly four
:27:14. > :27:18.decades. And he's not stopped yet. What you see is what you get, but
:27:19. > :27:22.don't be fooled. This is no Mr Bean. So you're having fun? That's what
:27:23. > :27:29.you're really saying. Absolutely, every day is a new beginning. And
:27:30. > :27:33.you owe that to your dad, you know. I was thinking really of that shot
:27:34. > :27:38.he did of you on that flying carpet, where you had to go up to the attic
:27:39. > :27:41.and then he showed you it. I think he was sending you a message,
:27:42. > :28:01.saying, Paul, anything is possible. Dream on. I think that's true, so
:28:02. > :28:17.thank you very much, Dad. # These are a few of my favourite things.
:28:18. > :28:27.# When the dog bites, when the bee stings, when I'm feeling sad.
:28:28. > :28:32.# I simply remember my favourite things.