We’re all for streamlining. In terms of our bodies. As Dominic would say, we like to keep it “snatch”. And so too does Paul Smith, apparently. Well, not his body (that we know of), but his business. For as the fashion industry goes nuts as it decides what is too much and too little, Smith is keeping it simple. From now on, he’ll produce just two lines (“At one point, I counted 27 or 28,” he told Business of Fashion this morning) – Paul Smith and PS, comprising of both menswear and womenswear, appearing in stores four times a year. Dropping the fat, I believe you would call it. “There’s this absolute horrendous disease of greed and over-expansion and unnecessary, massive over-supply of product,” he said. “You’ve got to flow with the river, that’s the job of the fashion designer… nobody cares how good you used to be. I’m just so full of energy and ideas and I think I was just pumping out too much stuff. Luckily, I have honest, young staff saying, ‘I think we should focus more.”
Photograph by Jason Lloyd-Evans backstage at Paul Smith AW16
Source: Business of Fashion