IT was fitting that Paul Smith's show happened at the Central Saint Martins College today, since he has advised and supported so many of Britain's most talented designers over the years - not that he'd ever name them or claim any credit for their success. His spring/summer 2014 collection was as young and sassy as ever - his is a timeless style that works again and again and the result of a multi-faceted creative mind of a man who really, truly enjoys life and for whom work is play - so he does both with equal enthusiasm.
By Dolly Jones for ELLE
Today he offered crisp striped shirting tucked into wide legged trousers with a rolled cuff that were as high quality as we expect from him – and right on the money of the boy-meets-girls trend that prevails - while Seventies-inspired dresses wafted beneath Panama hats for proof that the Paul Smith woman leads the good life. There were enlarged daffodil prints - flowers are getting bigger and bigger next summer - and the great attention to detail that he does so well, from a ruched elbow on a suit to the gathered waistband of its trouser. He doesn’t claim to break ground but what he does, he does impeccably – and there’s barely a woman in the world without Paul Smith in her wardrobe, or a country in the world who doesn’t sell it, for that matter.
Dolly Jones
19