Paul Smith: Gentleman Designer (2011) is, much like the clothing offered up by this iconic British label, a bit on the flashy side. This 55-minute TV documentary by Stéphane Carroll - which follows Smith himself as he goes about the everyday business as head of his trendy design house - is over before you know it, giving the viewer little or no time to discover what really makes the man tick. Yet Smith's secret is in the detail, a point made by a number of his customers at the opening of the film. Smith himself emphasises this when he explains that this was one of his earliest design innovations, the inspiration for which came through necessity.
Divided into three distinct parts Paul Smith Handbags UK, the film chronicles the designer's work life, from team brainstorming at his London headquarters, to casting the models for his latest collection in Paris and visiting the company's newest flagship store in Tokyo. The film is most interesting when it shows Smith and his designers during the originating a new collection (in this case for the Winter 2011 season), or when it follows him as he mooches round the clothing markets of Portobello Road on a Friday morning picking up various vintage pieces for inspiration.
In The September Issue (2009), R. J. Cutler's much more insightful look at the fashion business, Grace Coddington, the flame-haired Creative Director of American Vogue, says that she always keeps her eyes open gathering inspiration from whatever she sees around her buy Paul Smith Handbags. Smith claims the same. However as anyone with even the slight interest in fashion can tell you there is very little original in the world of clothing design, with much of what you see on the designer catwalks gleaned and picked up from history - a tactic Smith subtly, yet clearly uses to his own lucrative ends.
At one point in Gentleman Designer, American Vogue's Hamish Bowles likens Smith's intrinsic Britishness to Ralph Lauren, another historical style magpie, and his influence on American culture. Which emphasises Paul Smith iPhone 5 Case, as this ultimately disappointing film does, that there really is nothing new under the sun, particularly in the world of high fashion.
2013年3月24日星期日
Paul Smith Handbags UK Paul Smith Gentleman Designer
outlet paul smith holdall Paul Smith’s China “Re-Launch” Unveiled In Tianjin
Paul Smith Tianjin (Image: Fashion Trend Digest)
Kicking off its second crack at the China market, following a well-publicized withdrawal five years ago, leading British label Paul Smith recently unveiled its first new location in Tianjin. Having — in some analysts’ eyes — jumped the gun by entering China before consumers had warmed to more low-key labels, Paul Smith is optimistic that the emerging brand-savvy Chinese shopper will mean its prospects in 2013 are far better than they were in 2006.
Spearheaded by the new Tianjin location, Paul Smith’s renewed China push will be both old-school and cutting-edge, with the brand expanding its brick-and-mortar presence while jumping into domestic Chinese social media platforms. Hoping to open around 20 locations nationwide over the next five years, Paul Smith is preparing to open its very first mainland China flagship, a 5,000 square foot (465 square meter) “megastore” in Shanghai by the end of this year.
Located in the Lotte Department Store at Tianjin’s Milky Way International Shopping Center, Tianjin’s Paul Smith boutique wouldn’t look entirely out-of-place in London, with a nicely outfitted interior featuring pale yellow limestone floors and antique furniture. Using the same store-in-store effect seen at Paul Smith locations at Heathrow Terminal 5 and on Greene Street in New York, the Tianjin boutique is divided into four discrete sections: menswear, footwear, jewelry, and womenswear. Each section features its own British flavor, with the menswear section outfitted in traditional hand-carved oak paneling, a pair of 19th century oak tables and two antique chairs upholstered with Maharam fabric personally designed by Sir Paul Smith. With oak flooring in a unique zigzag pattern, a light pink striped backdrop outlet paul smith holdall, a central antique dolphin-base table, and a coral chandelier, the womenswear section is the yin to the menswear area’s yang.
Paul Smith Tianjin (Image: Fashion Trend Digest)
As Jing Daily noted in August, Paul Smith is optimistic that changing demand in the country — led by shoppers with an eye on quality and style rather than logos and flash — will help it capture more of the country’s still-booming high fashion segment despite consumer slowdown fears. By 2020, the mainland China fashion market is expected to triple in size to more than 1.3 trillion yuan (US$206 billion), up from 400 billion yuan in 2010 outlet paul smith bags. As Balbina Wong, chief executive officer for ImagineX Group (Paul Smith’s distributor in the Greater China region), put it this summer, “This is the right time to join the race&hellip paul smith holdall;Chinese consumers are becoming more sophisticated and brand-conscious. China’s overall GDP may slow, but the middle-class is growing.”
As Sir Paul Smith told the FT, “There is a lot more awareness of Paul Smith [in China] now than there used to be…There are a lot of people who are not necessarily looking for the obvious symbols of wealth or fashion. They are more looking to buy things that they know are interesting, or special.”
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FASHION: DEIRDRE McQUILLANtalks to Amanda Pratt about the inspiration for Avoca’s autumn look
IT COMES AS no surprise that Amanda Pratt, creative director of Avoca, admits that Paul Smith is her greatest hero. Like him, she doesn’t go down the traditional route for anything, preferring to find her inspiration from all sources, particularly old fabrics and patterns. Elsa Schiaparelli (who was a customer of Avoca in the 1930s), another designer famous for her individuality, is a revered figure.
Pratt’s ability to combine different colours, textures and patterns in a wayward outlet paul smith bags, artistic way marks out her style as very much her own whether on a box, a cup or in a fashion garment.
“It&rsquo outlet paul smith holdall;s to do with knowing when something is too much or knowing when it’s too little, it has to do with balance,” she says, sitting on the floor in her office, knee-deep in clothing samples.
“I always start with fabrics because that is my great love,” she says, admitting that she haunts the VA in London several times a year.
“I was always in love with beautiful old clothes that have some resonance. I don’t like throwing things away. I love the history in fabrics.” Her creative responsibilities don’t just end with the fashion collections she designs every year – spring 2013 is already out of the way and winter 2013 in progress – but includes everything from scarves to homewares, samples of which crowd the shelves in her office. Ninety per cent of what Avoca produces in these areas is exported, mainly to northern Europe but also further afield; the company has just received a €56,000 order for socks, for instance, from Anthropologie in the US and there is growing interest from Japan.
“The countries whose fashion really excites me are the UK and Japan,” she says.
Her scrapbooks in which she gathers ideas, images and fabrics for each season are a key to her design approach.
“I work on it at night at home, sitting in front of the fire when I have mental space. And I am completely paranoid about it. If I can’t in the book, I can’t do it in reality.&rdquo paul smith handbags sale; The winter collection shown here, would have started on these pages.
I comment on the buttons, always a noticeable feature, the latest made from old watches. “Most people think of a button as something that just does something up – it is usually the last thing a designer thinks of, whereas I think of it like a piece of jewellery that adds something happy and unexpected. Buttons were special to our ancestors and were often a mark of position. I see them as surprising details.”
That element of humour and surprise has endeared her to the Japanese market and Japanese magazines sit on a rack alongside French Vogue and others. “I love the Japanese aesthetic and their lack of fear of being different, particularly Japanese women. They like naivety rather than sexuality. We have been exporting there for the past four seasons, which means that at retail, Japan is selling €1.3 million worth of Avoca product.”
Now the giant Itochu Corporation, one of the world’s biggest, which brought Paul Smith, Vivienne Westwood and Jil Sander amongst others to Japan, wants to open an Avoca retail shop in the country. Pratt is heading there next month – she is already taking lessons in Japanese – and if successful, the venture will mark a major development for the Irish company which has seen a big jump in exports since September 2009 as well as a 64 per cent increase in online business in the last six months.
Here in Ireland, however, most people associate Avoca with its café and shops, the newest of which has just opened in Malahide Castle in north Dublin. “Because of this, we are not really seen as an export business,” says Pratt. “I can’t think of any others in Ireland doing what I am doing and exporting. We are not seen in Ireland as being a design-driven house and the area that I am passionate about is design. There is so much innovation going on here and to think that another nation like Japan, whose people are so different, would think that Avoca would be exciting, would be a dream.”
2013年3月17日星期日
Paul Smith Gentleman Designer
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