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Paul Smith: Old Boys Club, Meet the Girls

Of any of the designers showing at London Fashion Week, there is none more quintessentially British than Sir Paul Smith, the Ralph Lauren on this side of the pond. He’s also one of the most established of designers still opting to show in London - most of Britain’s other well-known talents have made a run for Paris (Alexander McQueen, John Galliano, Vivienne Westwood) or New York (Matthew Williamson, Luella Bartley).

Smith has said in recent interviews he might consider moving the women’s ready to wear show to Paris where he shows his men’s collection each season, something that would no doubt make the British Fashion Council a bit unhappy, but here’s a compelling reason for why he should stay: Smith’s clothes just make so much sense with the context of this country as its backdrop.

Sure, Smith is a master at recreating a mood through the right art direction. His quirky flagship stores - Smith recently opened one in New York and L.A. and told us he has plans for San Francisco and Istanbul stores very soon - encapsulate a sense of British wit and appeal to his customer’s nostalgic leanings and also their high-low aesthetic.

Smith’s runway for the fall/winter 2007 show, held on February 13 at the Royal Horticultural Hall, was no different: Suspended above a white carpet with an art nouveau-esque Paul Smith logo were white lampshades of various shapes and sizes, suggesting perhaps, a Bloomsbury Group salon.

Virginia Woolf, the Bloomsbury Set’s most famous female author, would have been right at home in Smith’s latest women’s wear collection of androgynous, Twenties-inspired checked suits and Art Deco printed flapper dresses that he mixed with his other popular collection for women, called Men Only.

“There are a lot of female fans out there who like what I do for men, so I did some of the same things but for made it for women,” said Smith post show of inspiration behind the Men Only collection.

You could see this in the opening passage, a series of voluminous sweaters that could have belonged to her boyfriend, but were given wider sleeves and hung almost shawl-like over a crisp white shirt and shorts. Smith also took another staple of the gentlemen’s country wardrobe, the three piece checked suit, cropping and tapering the trouser to make it more feminine and modern.

But for the female Smith fans who look to his collection simply for a great printed dress or pop colors in combinations only he could devise, he didn’t disappoint. A cape sleeved scarf print top in red was sophisticated, while two neon coats - one in pink, the other in chartreuse shook up the otherwise conservative and somber palette of blacks, greens and grays.

Shoes, a growing business for Paul Smith, were either mannish flat loafers or super high stilettos, some refashioned spectator pumps, others with neon pink bows as accents.

The only complaint about the collection is that it was perhaps a little too retro inspired, though there were contemporary updates via luxe fabrics like cashmere and a new sense of tailored volume. And though the idea of a woman wearing men’s wear influenced clothing is nothing new, of any men’s wear designer out there, Smith is the one whose adaptations we’d most trust.

But keeping up with what’s current and/or trendy is sort of besides the point for the loyal Paul Smith customer, whose tastes run towards the classic. Case in point: sales in the New York flagship are already 25% higher than anticipated, so clearly what he’s doing is working.

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