Directory

Retail Directory 2009 

Paul Smith

San Francisco

Paul Smith’s new San Francisco store – his second in California – is a fittingly two-faced affair. The storefront on Geary Street is a striking piece of mid-century modernism with graphic red, pink and orange panels while the store backs onto Maiden Lane with a more traditional brick façade. Geary Street is hardly a buzzing retail hub but Smith fell in love with the space – a former Catholic bookstore – and you can see why. The exterior contrast in styles is the perfect cue for Smith to mix Donald Judd and Paul Evans references at one end of the store – mounted colour panels and sharp-edged cabinetry - whilst using dark mahogany panelling, recovered from a 19th century bank building, in the suit room further into the shop. Smith has hung 30 Vaclav Trefil abstract paintings from the 1940s and 50s to smooth out the stylistic shift. The store will house the full stretch of Paul Smith collections as well one-off design pieces and other curios.

45-50 Geary Street
San Francisco, CA94108

www.paulsmith.co.uk