a fashion lesson under paternal influence

A fashion lesson for barely 80 people at Paul Smith on Wednesday; a welcome break on this wet and cold day and a collection inspired by the designer's father.
Harold B. Smith's photographic images adorned dandy shirts and hipster sweaters, exuding a certain typically Anglo-Saxon insouciance.

The presentation took place in the Marais and guests entered the room through a darkroom, where one could admire his father's enlarger, photos and a copy of an invitation to an exhibition of Harold in his photography group, Beeston Camera Club.
In October 1976, Sir Paul Smith's first fashion show took place in a friend's apartment on rue de Vaugirard, with his relatives as models and only 35 people in the audience. Today's parade was held at the seven-story mansion he owns in the Marais.

“Luckily, I’ve grown up a bit since then. If we press the fast forward button to today, my business is still independent and I can do what I'm doing right now, which is tell you directly about what I do in the life“, underlined Paul, brandishing his father’s Rolleiflex device. Indeed, since this first modest fashion show, Paul Smith is today at the head of a company whose revenues exceed 200 million pounds per year.
This season, he invited trios of models to better explain his fall 2025 collection. Pointing to a photo of a flower taken by his father, enlarged by his team, blurred and radically reduced on excellent turquoise and orange cotton shirts. The suede and denim jackets were embroidered with little sketches like the ones his father drew.

“It's a photo of Dad, so wherever you are, thank you!” greeted Paul Smith, pointing to a shirt before clapping the air in a gesture of thanks.
In a broader sense, the clothes paid homage to photography legends like David Bailey, Terence Donovan and Saul Leiter. An early 1980s look was taken from the Paul Smith archives, a Derbyshire leather jacket, “exactly the same as the one [David] Bailey wore,” claims Sir Paul Smith.
Matching ties and shirts referenced the look of British photographers still serving in the military at the time. The color palette played with Saul Leiter's favorite shades: urban, murky tones with ultra-bright touches.
The other big news is none other than a collaboration with Barbour, the venerable British coat label, not lacking in humor with their linings decorated with spring birds. The presentation got a long round of applause, before Paul Smith posed with his models for a group photo. The designer was clearly delighted to have been able to show his father's photographs in Paris.
It is said that prolonged work in a darkroom can reduce life expectancy. This does not appear to have been the case for Harold Smith, who died at the ripe old age of 94 in 1998.