Agree, he had some stirling stuff in the early days, shirts and pants.  He's just another label now, outsourced Far East crap.  He's very keen to emphasise all his inspiring trips to Tokyo, but evidently he hasn't been to any of the sweat shops for inspiration.

Lacoste seem to be a low end brand for pubescent boys and girls now. Their marketing and stores are utter shite. 

As Weejun knows the Lacoste store in Rio's Zona Sol use to be fantastic, great OCBD's, jackets and superlative polos in a myriad of bright and bold colours. I go to the flagstore shop in Rotterdam, well, its embarassing.  If ever there was a label that needed to be rebranded back to its traditional roots, its Lacoste.

There was a book I bought of his, which listed every item he owned. An interesting vanity project.

^ Nice one, Get Smart!

The problem with Paul Smith is that his suits have strange blocks. The sizing of shirts etc is inconsistent and often on the small side.

yes he still uses Trickers and even Crockett Jones for some of his shoes, in addition to Alfred Sargent, but it seems the Trickers/C&J are for shoes that are only for the Japanese market as I've never seen those models in UK or USA. (The boots I'm wearing in pic ^^ are Paul Smith Trickers brogue boots)

I wasn't having a go at the man, just his misdirection. 

He's capable of superb stuff and evidently, his decent C&J made shoes are being sent to the Japanese market alone. Now, the Japanese market as we all know, is supremely discerning and utterly sussed. Why not give this to the UK/USA/Europe market, some of us are clued up and can recognise quality?  We're not all chavs, euro or trailer trash.

No Thats paul frank. I forgot about that stuff. teenage girls went mad for it a few years back

I don't know when he left Nottingham.  There used to be quite a nice, expensive little scene going on between Derby and Nottingham.  Derby had 'His N' Hers', a shop which John Simons asked me about more than once, and where I seem to remember buying Kickers in the summer of 1976.  They'd have been pricey.  He was quite a local hero, young Paul.  The hipper soul/jazz/funk lads would have been keen, and the sort of blokes I knew who had bespoke shoes circa 78, around the time I was discovering Brooks.

One can't help but admire the Japanese since 1945.  Observe, learn, imitate, do it better - if not necessarily cheaper.  Amazing people IMO.  Never sold anything to 'em on Ebay; are they too savvy for that?

I find Paul Smith's clothing deeply uninteresting. He is a nice chap and very personable and has made many influential friends and it is these people I feel who helped to begin building the 'Smith myth' in the 1980s. I have never found anything I like in his Long Acre shop which is always staffed by young men who take themselves oh so very seriously indeed. Not for me. Hubert Swaine was once taken by a slim lapelled pseudo-early 60s Paul Smith corduroy jacket, spent a few hundred quid on it, got it home, saw the 'Made in the Third World' label, fainted at the extent of the padding and the extended shoulder pads, and promptly threw it in the bin. But Smith the man is very pleasant indeed and he does know his stuff and understands style and the history and background of clothing. He, and his buyers, shopped regularly at J.Simons, and Smith recently sent a letter to John Simons commending him on his pivotal role in pioneering Ivy League style in the UK. This was for John to use when negotiating with landlords who would be ignorant of his legacy.

g.g.

Afraid I had a similar experience to Hubert Swaine with a Gee linen suit.  It could have been so much better.  If only they'd paid more attention to the jacket.  It rumpled nicely as you wore it out on a hot day, but you were horribly conscious of looking like Joan Collins.