This evening (16 June 2026), guests will gather in the cloisters of Florence’s Santa Maria Novella Church for a dinner hosted by the Umbrian designer Brunello Cucinelli – a twice-yearly tradition that marks the opening of Pitti Uomo, the historic Florentine menswear fair. And with it, the beginning of Men’s Fashion Month: after Florence, there are stops in Milan and Paris across a 12-day schedule which will see S/S 2027 menswear offerings from fashion’s biggest houses – among them Prada, Dior, Louis Vuitton and Saint Laurent – as well as a raft of newer names. By the time Paris wraps up on 28 June 2026, we will have the blueprint of how menswear might look a year from now, and no doubt plenty to mull over: this looks to be a season of consolidation and world-building as relatively new creative directors settle into their tenures and others steady the ship amid the backdrop of a global luxury slowdown.

And, while the schedule is certainly lighter than its womenswear counterpart (the S/S 2027 women’s shows will take place in September, and traditionally have a busier line-up), plenty of intriguing moments remain – from Simone Rocha’s first dedicated menswear show (she will be a guest designer at Pitti Uomo, showing in the historic Teatro Della Pergola), to calendar shift-ups, designer returns and (a small handful) of debuts. We've picked the eight moments to look out for this Men’s Fashion Month S/S 2027 below.

Simone Rocha will be Pitti Uomo’s guest star

Historic menswear fair Pitti Uomo, taking place in Florence twice-yearly, marks the start of Men’s Fashion Month each season, centring around the 14th-century Fortezza da Basso. But alongside the main fair – where you will find stands from Brunello Cucinelli, Herno and the like – organisers invite a number of guest designers to show each season in locations around the city (previous guests have included Raf Simons, Martine Rose and Grace Wales Bonner, alongside numerous fashion houses). This time, it is the turn of Irish designer Simone Rocha, who will host her first dedicated menswear show on Thursday 18 June at the 17th-century Teatro Della Pergola, an opera house and theatre that is one of the oldest in Italy (previously she has presented menswear as part of her womenswear show, or via lookbook). ‘I would like to thank Pitti Uomo for their generous invitation to present my first independent menswear show on the men's calendar,’ she said when the news was announced, elucidating that she will use the moment to show ‘the length and breadth of [her] menswear proposition... [and] a new chapter in my work and world.’

Two menswear greats will return to Milan

Milan is well known for its sartorial prowess – particularly when it comes to men’s tailoring – something that has drawn two legendary international designers back to Milan Fashion Week Men’s this season. They are Paul Smith, who has shown in the city for a handful of seasons now, and Ralph Lauren, who returned to the Milan schedule in January of this year, marking the American designer’s first Italian menswear show in two decades. Both will show in their headquarters in the city: the former on Viale Umbria, the latter at Palazzo Ralph Lauren, which resides in an imposing 1941 Mino Fiocchi-designed building formerly known as Casa Campanini-Bonomi. Both will likely be celebratory affairs: particularly for Smith, who will turn 80 in July and use the latter half of the year to celebrate the landmark, including the release of an autobiography, Threads: My Life in Style, in September.

While Thom Browne will make his Milan Fashion Week Men’s debut

American designer Thom Browne has adopted something of a travelling schedule for his runway shows in recent seasons, showing between Paris and his native New York, as well as a one-off show in San Francisco earlier this year to coincide with the Super Bowl (Browne’s tailoring is a favourite among American athletes, and NFL players DeAndre Hopkins, Justin Jefferson and Steeler Marcus Allen walked the show). This season, though, he is breaking new ground: a runway show in Milan on Monday 22 June will mark his debut in the Italian city. Apart from the venue, the neoclassical Palazzo Serbelloni, little has been revealed about the show – though, if his previous outings are any indication, expect his usual eye for fantasy and play (his last menswear show, in Paris, for example, featured enormous glittering alien heads, worn by the models as masks).

Saint Laurent is back to opening Paris Fashion Week Men’s

Last June, Saint Laurent opened Men’s Fashion Week with a S/S 2026 collection that transported guests from ‘Paris to Fire Island’ amid a serene installation by French artist Céleste Boursier-Mougenot at Bourse de Commerce – Pinault Collection (it comprised a circular pool on which a series of bowls floated across its glimmering blue surface). This season, the house will return to its first-day slot (for A/W 2026, in January, it ended proceedings) with a menswear show that is expected to take place in the contemporary art gallery. It will be followed that evening by another blockbuster show: the latest Louis Vuitton menswear collection by Pharrell Williams, which will take place at 9pm in an as-yet-undisclosed location.

All eyes will be on Jonathan Anderson’s Dior Men

Three seasons in, Northern Irish designer Jonathan Anderson has succeeded in making Dior one of fashion’s most talked-about houses: case in point, a Hollywood-inspired Cruise 2027 in the Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA) in May, which alongside a starry front row (Sabrina Carpenter, Miley Cyrus and Al Pacino were all in attendance), featured collaborations with artist Ed Ruscha and milliner Philip Treacy (fittingly, one of the headpieces spelt out ‘Buzz’ in feathers). On Wednesday 24 June, he will return to Dior’s home city for his S/S 2027 menswear show – arguably the most anticipated on the Paris Fashion Week Men’s schedule, following an acclaimed A/W 2026 show that drew inspiration from the outré stylings of couturier Paul Poiret and his infamous Belle Époque dinner parties.

Sarah Burton will reveal her vision for Givenchy menswear

Sarah Burton has shown three womenswear collections on the runway since the beginning of her tenure at Givenchy (she came to the house from Alexander McQueen, where she succeeded the eponymous designer as creative director); this season, in Paris, she will begin to expand her Givenchy universe with her first dedicated menswear presentation. Because, despite overseeing commercial collections – as well as dressing figures like Timothée Chalamet for the red carpet – she is yet to formerly introduce her menswear vision for the Parisian house. What to expect? Some great tailoring, no doubt – Burton is adept when it comes to a pin-sharp suit – alongside the bold flourishes of colour and print which defined her critically lauded A/W 2026 womenswear show last season.

At Celine, Michael Rider will host a dedicated menswear show

An intimate presentation of Michael Rider’s first dedicated menswear collection for Celine – presented earlier this year in the brand’s headquarters – was one of the highlights of the A/W 2026 season, despite a lack of models and runway (the clothing was instead staged in a series of playful tableaus, while guests snacked on Celine-branded popcorn). For S/S 2027, the American designer – formerly of Polo Ralph Lauren, as well as Celine during Phoebe Philo’s tenure – will host a dedicated menswear show on the final Sunday of Paris Fashion Week. Expect the infusion of Parisian insouciance and Ivy League stylings that have become his signature – and won him a devoted legion of fans, as well as thousands more aping the look in Instagram GRWMs, from colourful sweaters slung around the waist to rugby shirts and sliced-away ties.

London label Studio Nicholson will make its runway debut

This menswear season is suprisingly light on debuts, either from fledgling labels or major houses welcoming a new creative director. Studio Nicholson is an exception, though it also doesn’t fit into either camp: founded in 2010 by Nick Wakeman, the London-based label has already established itself as a cult destination for those who favour a simplicity of design and high-quality fabrications. But, while the brand has undertaken high-profile collaborations with the likes of Zara, it has never hosted a traditional runway show, something that will change this season: Wakeman has opted to present a collection during Paris Fashion Week Men‘s. Taking place on Friday 26 June at Hotel d’Evreux in Place Vendôme. Comprising her men’s and women’s collections for S/S 2027, it is a new addition to the Paris Fashion Week Men’s schedule – others include Meryll Rogge’s first menswear presentation, 2025 LVMH Prize winner Soshiotsuki and Australian brand Song for the Mute.

At Wallpaper*, we champion the design-led, forward-thinking and impeccably executed. We’re always on the lookout for compelling creations – from objects and accessories to jewellery, fashion and tech – and aim to bring you pieces that subvert, surprise and delight.

In The Design Drop, we highlight the most striking objects to land in a given month. Think of it as a wish list for the design-discerning: browse, admire – and, if tempted, acquire.

Read on to discover May's standout pieces from our favourite brands and studios.

Collaborations in fashion are usually loud, headline-making affairs, so there is something satisfying about the intimacy – and relative quiet – of a new collaboration between British design legend Paul Smith and Gabriela Hearst, whose eponymous label is known for an environment-first approach (the Uruguayan designer was also creative director of Chloé from 2020-2023).

Indeed, the contemplative collaboration has deeply personal roots: two photographs taken by Paul’s father, Harold B. Smith, of the British countryside. A perennial reference for the designer, Harold – who was a member of the Beeston Camera Club in Nottinghamshire – was the subject of the two-volume book Father & Son (2000), which featured his amateur photography alongside his son’s. An A/W 2025 collection from the designer also featured Harold’s photographs as prints.

Here, the images are of the ‘quiet majesty of a mountain’ and the ‘fluid movement of a waterfall’, featuring not only as prints across tailoring and outerwear, but also inspiring the more abstract, painterly motifs on knit sweaters, or the ‘mountain’ hue of a pair of virgin wool trousers. In total, there are 14 pieces – spanning both men’s and womenswear – including new iterations of Hearst’s ‘Nina’ and ‘Demi’ top-handle bags.

Though what is perhaps most notable about the collaboration is the use of fabric – something specific to Hearst, who has long been meticulous in material-sourcing, with transparent supply chains which are traced from field to factory floor. Here, this includes virgin wool barré for the tailoring, silk satin and cashmere, the latter used to create jumpers hand-knit by Manos del Uruguay, a non-profit cooperative in the country which helps women craftspeople, particularly in rural communities, find financial independence.

‘It was a real privilege to work with Gabriela, we share a lot of common ground – neither of us has had a formal training in design, so learning by doing is what connects us, and I really like that,’ Paul tells Wallpaper*. ‘We have a lot of love and passion for what we do, and I hope that people enjoy this collection as much as we enjoyed creating it.’

Hearst agrees that the highlight of the collaboration was working alongside Paul on the collection, which will be available through their respective stores. ‘Sir Paul Smith is so many things: a national treasure, a fashion icon, an original punk, the coolest man on the planet, a revered design god, but overall a creative genius with his feet on the ground – he still describes himself as a shopkeeper,’ she says. ‘He has the joy of a child and the humbleness of the great.’

The collection is accompanied by a series of serene images photographed by Cathy Kasterine and styled by Camilla Nickerson, setting the natural landscapes of the clothing against ‘a raw New York sensibility’. Inspiration comes from Patti Smith in the 1970s, and the contemporary Brooklyn musician Cameron Winter, who fronts the New York band Geese.

Available now at paulsmith.com and at gabrielahearst.com

Despite a lean show schedule – largely down to the number of Italian brands choosing to go co-ed in recent seasons, including Gucci and Fendi – Milan Fashion Week Men’s A/W 2026 edition provided a nonetheless intriguing line-up of runway shows, from those that asked the big questions (at Prada, in ‘uncomfortable’ times, Miuccia Prada and Raf Simons asked what do we take from the past, and what do we leave behind) to those that revelled in the joy of dressing (Ralph Lauren’s return to the Milan runway for the first time in 20 years was one such show). Others introduced fresh perspectives: in his second on-schedule show for his brand Setchu, 2023 LVMH Prize winner Satoshi Kuwata – a Kyoto-born designer who lives and works in Milan – was a rare representative for emerging talent at the week (typically Milan has been dominated by its blockbuster names).

Here, Wallpaper* selects the standout shows of Milan Fashion Week Men’s, which we saw runway-side as they happened (also see our Milan live blog, where we recorded all the action as it unfolded).

Zegna

Themes of inheritance are prescient at Zegna: on 1 January Edoardo and Angelo Zegna, fourth-generation members of the textile dynasty, became co-CEOs of the house founded by their great-grandfather, Ermenegildo Zegna, over a century ago (they succeeded their father, Gildo Zegna, who will become executive chairman). For his latest show – a return to Milan after showing last season in Dubai – creative director Alessandro Sartori mined similar themes, transforming Milan’s Palazzo Del Ghiaccio into a vast dressing room, complete with a series of towering closets, each filled with pieces from the real-life wardrobes of Gildo and his cousin Paolo Zegna. They spanned the personal and the inherited: an impromptu history of the house through the clothing of its protagonists. Sartori said he was fascinated by the idea of a garment as a vessel for memories; of creating clothing that is built to last and passed through generations. ‘I am after the sense of wonder that happens when one finds a piece that was owned by one's father, grandfather, uncle; the discovery that comes from studying other ways of dressing, which prompts a willingness to try something new,’ he said.

As the show began, models wove their way in and out of the wardrobes, Narnia-style; their own looks, which had a nostalgic elegance, captured a mood of ease and eclecticism as if they were picking out garments as they went. Indeed, Sartori described the look as dégagé: silhouettes were cut with his eye for generous, contemporary proportions, while a rich melange of fabrics spanned heritage tweeds, Shetland wools and a mohair gabardine in classic hues of brown, anthracite grey and black (shots of sapphire and mustard enlivened the look). Like last autumn/winter, outerwear was a true highlight: boxy overcoats took on roomy silhouettes with clever double-breasted fastenings (buttons were reduced into a line of three, held in place by the middle button), while utility jackets in suede had a 1970s flavour, as if plucked from one of Sartori’s time-travelling wardrobes. ‘We take deep pride and make a lot of effort in doing what we do,’ he said. ‘So the idea of creating something that can be kept, reused and reinterpreted for a long time energises us.’

Paul Smith

In the collection notes, Paul Smith name-checked his new head of men’s design, Sam Cotton, whom the stalwart British designer credited with helping him see his archive through ‘fresh eyes’. That archive is physical: a vast storage facility in Smith’s native Nottingham, comprising over 5,000 pieces, collected by the designer over the near-half century since he opened his first shop in 1970. ‘The joy of having the archive like this is that my own design team visits regularly and comes back with great enthusiasm for things they found there,’ Smith said in a voiceover to the salon-style A/W 2026 show, held in his Milanese headquarters on Saturday afternoon. ‘Seeing it through their eyes gives me energy, makes me see things in a new way.’

As such, tropes from the archive reemerged, like a series of ‘inside-out’ tailoring from the late 1990s, an era towards which that Smith and his design team had been drawn back. There were also elements from the 1980s, too – broad-shouldered tailoring recalled corporate attire of the era, while a riff on the tricorne hat had a New Romantics feel. Botanic prints, hanging glass bag charms and ‘bookish’ glasses added to the eclectic mood of the collection – Smith said another inspiration was French artist and filmmaker Jean Cocteau. As Smith, who turns 80 this year, bounded down the stairs to take his final bow, there was a celebratory mood: in the post-show chatter, there was a broad consensus that this was his best show in some time.

Setchu

For his A/W 2026 show, Setchu’s Satoshi Kuwata invited guests into his new Milan studio, a light-filled space which, for the occasion, had been lined with tatami sleeping mats. Though he now lives and works in Milan, Kuwata’s native Japan (the 2023 LVMH Prize-winning designer was born in Kyoto) remains prescient in his work; here, it emerged in woven straw sliders and booties (recalling both the tatami mats and traditional woven baskets), as well as the often unconventional cut of his garments, something now synonymous with contemporary Japanese fashion design.

This season, for Kuwata, as he elaborated in a charming introduction to the collection (the designer appeared on the runway personally to introduce its themes), had begun with fishing – his favourite pastime. Particularly, a recent trip to the barren landscapes of Greenland, a stormy mecca for fishing aficionados, who travel to its plentiful (if dangerous) waters. As such, garments had a feeling of function and protection (albeit in often unconventional style), from bags that, via a series of zips, transformed into garments to cocooning outerwear (jackets looped over the head and were curved at the sleeve) and flourishes of fluffy white ‘fur’ that loosely drew on historic garments in the Greenland National Museum in Nuuk (he likened them to those of the Ainu shamans of northern Japan in their use of natural materials to protect against the elements).

Now in his third season showing on the runway – the first show took place at Pitti Uomo, the second in Milan last season – Kuwata is bringing fresh energy to Milan Fashion Week Men’s, which has been notorious for its lack of emerging talent (the city’s banner names have long dominated). Judging by the buoyant mood in the room afterwards, he is a much-appreciated new fixture.

Prada

At Prada, co-creative directors Miuccia Prada and Raf Simons said that they were looking back to the past to look forward to the future with an A/W 2026 menswear collection that was about ‘evolution not erasure’. Backstage, Simons likened it to a kind of ‘archaeology’. ‘There is a lot here from the past,’ he said. ‘If you take the layers away, you always find a kind of beauty. There’s the knowledge that you still want to celebrate and use, but you also want to innovate.’ Befitting the collection’s thematics, the show took place amid an OMA-designed set that looked as if an Italian palazzo had been sliced away through its floors – whether in the midst of its destruction or renovation.

Mrs Prada and Simons looked towards menswear archetypes – among them the businessman’s shirt, the raincoat and the double-breasted suit – skewing their proportions until they became something new. Cuffs of shirts became supersized, layered under ultra-narrow double-breasted tailoring and overcoats, while mackintosh-style jackets came with colourful overlays and matching sou’wester hats. ‘It’s a moment of really big change,’ said Mrs Prada, who was keen to note the ‘uncomfortable’ political climate that backdropped the show. ‘Who knows the future? So [you have to think about] what you want to keep. What can you transform?’

‘Think about the businessman's or the politician’s shirt in this moment,’ added Simons. ‘You can transform that in two steps, in three steps, in four steps – what if you made the stripes horizontal? What if you gave it a T-shirt neckline? What if you age it? It’s about transforming things that you respect and love. Maybe they have the wrong connotation at a certain moment of time, when we don’t want that American corporate, masculine power. But what if you make it young, make it in beautiful colours?’

Read our full review of the Prada show here.

Giorgio Armani

Having eschewed the usual Emporio Armani show on Saturday evening (the menswear is expected to be shown alongside the womenswear collection in February), the house hosted its A/W 2026 Giorgio Armani show on the closing day of Milan Fashion Week Men’s. A starry crowd gathered for the occasion (including Heated Rivalry’s Hudson Williams, who earlier in the week walked for DSquared2 in a much-Instagrammed moment). It marked the first menswear show since the death of Mr Armani this past September, and the solo debut of Leo Dell'Orco, the longtime head of the men's style office of the Armani Group (as the designer’s right-hand man, he worked with Mr Armani on the menswear house’s collections; as it stands, the future creative directorship of Giorgio Armani remains unknown).

This was a collection of evolution, not revolution: a respectful continuation of Mr Armani’s legacy of louche elegance, from lustrous collarless silk suiting (the house said ‘cangiante’, an irridescent silk, was a ‘metaphor’ for the collection – ‘something in constant transformation... catching the light in ever new ways’) to oversized trench coats and fluid tuxedos, the last studded with glimmering crystal brooches. There were also some great pieces in leather – the tie-waisted flight jacket worn by Kit Butler, cut to the roomy proportions of Mr Armani’s 1980s oeuvre, shows how contemporary (and indeed borrowed), the designer’s archive still feels. As ever with Armani shows, the reception was rapturous: all the more so when a visibly emotional Dell'Orco took his final bow.

Ralph Lauren

The Ralph Lauren show marked the brand's first in Milan for two decades, with the eponymous designer opting for an intimate salon-style presentation in Palazzo Ralph Lauren (a Mino Fiocchi-designed villa that the brand acquired in the 1990s) over a more blockbuster happening. It worked: his Polo Ralph Lauren and Ralph Lauren Purple Label presentations were shown back to back, and there was a charm to seeing the clothes up close and in motion, an optimistic offering that mined the designer’s hallmarks – from the preppy uniform of Polo Ralph Lauren (an aesthetic being readily embraced by a new generation of fans, as well as here at fashion week) to on-the-ranch Americana, old Hollywood eveningwear and plenty of brilliant denim (Lauren’s patched-up and repaired jeans are also having a street style comeback)

Styled eclectically – often these tropes were mashed up into a single look – Lauren said the collection itself was ‘inspired by the different ways men live’ (a message from the 87-year-old designer, who did not travel for the show, was placed on attendees’ seats). At over 70 looks – closed out by Tyson Beckford in a shaggy-pile coat, tuxedo, cowboy hat and hiking boots – there was, simply put, something for everyone. But what united the broad collection was a certain Ralphness that makes these much-reinterpreted archetypes distinct. ‘When I began designing menswear, I was drawn to the timeless elements of tradition, but I was never bound by it,’ he said. In this welcome return to the runway, it’s clear this attitude lives on.

Welcome to Milan Fashion Week Men’s A/W 2026

As Pitti Uomo culminates in Florence (catch up on our highlights from the menswear fair here), eyes turn towards Italy’s capital of style, Milan, where the A/W 2026 edition of Milan Fashion Week Men’s takes place this weekend (16-19 January 2026). There is something of a back-to-school feel to the event: the four-day happening marks – bar a handful of guest designers at Pitti Uomo, including Hed Mayner – the first runway shows of the A/W 2026 season, which will continue after Milan in Paris, later this month (after that, the A/W 2026 womenswear season will begin in February, in New York).

As ever, the Wallpaper* style editors are on the ground: despite a relatively sedate schedule, there are still a number of notable runway shows happening across the weekend, including Prada (expect a transporting OMA-designed set and a runway show that will no doubt set the tone for the season ahead), Dolce & Gabbana, Zegna and Giorgio Armani (the last marks the first menswear show since the eponymous designer’s passing last year). Elsewhere, British designer Paul Smith will also host his A/W 2026 show in Milan, following his move to the city last season, while Ralph Lauren will make its menswear runway return to Milan, having last shown here 20 years prior. Numerous presentations and events – including Ferragamo’s celebration of its ‘Tramezza’ shoes on Sunday evening – will take place alongside the main shows.

Here, follow our real-time look at Milan Fashion Week Men’s A/W 2026 – from behind-the-scenes glimpses to access to the shows, presentations and parties – as seen through the eyes (and iPhones) of the Wallpaper* editors. Stay tuned.

Zegna opens Milan Fashion Week Men’s by delving into the ‘family closet’

And so it begins – the first looks of Milan Fashion Week Men’s came from Zegna this afternoon, where Alessandro Sartori made his return to the Italian style capital after showing his S/S 2026 collection in Dubai last season (the house also moved from its traditional spot closing the week to opening it). The setting was Palazzo Del Ghiaccio, whereby the expansive main hall had been transformed with a series of towering ‘imaginary closets’ which were nonetheless filled with real clothing sourced by Sartori from Gildo and Paolo Zegna, both third-generation members of the Zegna family (Gildo is the house’s Group Executive Chairman).

Inherited through the family line, they inspired a collection of eclectic, nostalgic elegance – nonetheless cut to Sartori’s generous, contemporary silhouette. ‘I am after the sense of wonder that happens when one finds a piece that was owned by one's father, grandfather, uncle; the discovery that comes from studying other ways of dressing, which prompts a willingness to try something new,’ said Sartori. ‘The idea of creating something that can be kept energises us.’ The casting was equally cross-generational – an age-diverse casting that has become Sartori’s signature in recent seasons.

Ralph Lauren returns to the Milan runway after 20 years

Ralph Lauren opened the doors to his eponymous Milanese palazzo this evening, hosting an intimate presentation of his A/W 2026 menswear collections in the striking Mino Fiocchi-designed building that the brand acquired in the 1990s. Moving away from the usual static presentation format, Lauren instead chose to show his latest Polo Ralph Lauren and Ralph Lauren Purple collections for men in a back-to-back runway show that marked his first catwalk show in the city for two decades.

He said that the A/W 2026 collection itself was ‘inspired by the different ways men live’, eschewing tight thematics for a broad collection which married his distinct style tropes – from the preppy uniform for which he is best known (here: houndstooth jackets, yellow cable knits, Polo-branded caps and the like) to on-the-ranch Americana and old Hollywood eveningwear. As ever, it felt impossible not to be seduced by his optimistic vision. ‘[These collections] stand for the worlds I have believed in and lived,’ he said. JM

Jacob Cohën opens a one-night-only hotel

The dramatic Luigi Perrone-designed Circolo Filologico Milanese was momentarily transformed last night into a for-one-night-only Jacob Cohën hotel to present the brand’s A/W 2026 collection (an undertaking only a little less ambitious than last season, where owner and creative director Jennifer Tommasi Bardelle created a whole Jacob Cohën village). Cue Jacob Cohën bell boys who led guests through to the ‘lobby’, where models lounged on Chesterfield sofas while a jazz band provided a live soundtrack (champagne, naturally, was on tap). Upstairs, there was a chance to see the highlights up close: highlights included the super-lightweight suedes in Jacob Cohën’s signature denim blue, some lined with fluffy shearling for warmth. JM

Simon Holloway looks to Lord Snowdon’s personal wardrobe to inspire his A/W 2026 collection for Dunhill

This season, Simon Holloway chose to show his A/W 2026 collection for British heritage house Dunhill at Villa Mozart, one of Milan’s discreet architectural gems (the Piero Portaluppi​-designed villa is recognisable for its ivy-covered exterior). A shift away from the runway presentations of recent seasons, Holloway instead hosted a series of intimate talk-throughs for press, introducing a collection which was inspired by the insouciant style of Antony Armstrong-Jones, Lord Snowdon. For Holloway, the British photographer – who married Princess Margaret in 1960 to become the Earl of Snowdon – encapsulated the mood of the heady decade which followed, where high society mingled with rockstars, and the stuffy dress codes of the 1950s were abandoned (American photographer Ethan James Green sought to capture the era in an accompanying photo series, starring artist and model Henry Kitcher).

‘[It’s about] the tension between aristocratic formality and unguarded artistic expression,’ said Holloway of the collection, which came largely in shades of grey (it is an ‘always favourite’ he told Wallpaper* of the hue at the preview this morning). Bolder flourishes came in ‘haberdashery’, like colourful silk pocket squares and cashmere scarves, while motifs drawn from Arts & Crafts textiles adorned jacquard tailoring and slippers. Indeed superlative fabrications were the order of the day: from fluffy alpaca and hand-finished double-faced wool to soft-to-the-touch suede, which was used to construct a (very desirable) pair of ‘jeans’.

A fishing trip to Greenland inspired Satoshi Kuwata’s latest Setchu collection

For his sophomore Milan show, Kyoto-born designer Satoshi Kuwata – winner of the 2023 LVMH Prize for his 2020-founded brand Setchu – welcomed guests into his new brand’s ‘home’, a light-filled studio on Via Privata Rezia (for the occasion, the space had been lined with tatami mats, traditionally used for sleeping in his native Japan). Ever hospitable, Kuwata appeared at the start of the show to welcome guests, going on to talk through the collection’s inspirations, which included a memorable fishing trip to Greenland (fishing is one of Kuwata’s favourite pastimes; Greenland’s waters offered plentiful supplies). It led to a series of intriguing garments which married outdoorsy function (bags that transformed into garments through clever zip placement, warm layers of quilting, enveloping bombers and the like) with his signature unconventional pattern-cutting, honed by the designer during his time on Savile Row. Playful flourishes – like booties and slides made woven from straw, or shaggy, yeti-like ‘furs’ – added to the uplifting mood. ‘It just makes you happy,’ said my seatmate. JM.

Dolce & Gabbana was about the multiplicity of man

This season, Stefano Gabbana and Domenico Dolce moved away from the singular themes of past collections (for S/S 2026, it was ‘pyjama dressing’) towards a more wide-ranging ‘portrait’ of style that sought to capture the multiplicity of man. ‘The runway becomes a contemporary gallery of living portraits, where every look functions as a psychological and sartorial self-portrait,’ said a booming voiceover at the start of the show. ‘[It] unfolds through a sequence of micro universes, each representing a distinct portrait of man – the introspective thinker, the creative visionary, the Mediterranean sensualist and the restless romantic’. As such, an eclectic mode of dressing was the order of the day, shifting between the bold (an enormous striped shaggy ‘fur’ coat which opened the show; colourful jumpers in fuzzy mohair), the bookish (thick-rimmed glasses, jackets in heritage fabrications), and the sporty (a handful of models in walked the runway in a Dolce & Gabbana-branded football kit). And – in a nod to last season – a pair of pyjamas and a leopard print robe. ‘There are infinite possibilities. Each one deserves its portrait,’ the voiceover concluded. JM

Paul Smith looks back into the archive for his latest Milan show

For the second season running, Paul Smith chose to show in his Milan headquarters – an ‘intimate, salon-style’ presentation narrated by the designer via voiceover. ‘[It’s about] putting classics together in a way that’s a bit irreverent and odd, sometimes playful,’ he said, noting that several of the designs were rooted in pieces his design team had discovered in his expansive Nottingham archive (it numbers over 5000 pieces of clothing and ephemera, collected over the course of Smith’s career). The 1980s and 1990s were particular touch points: some memorable inside-out tailoring was revisited, while other blazers recalled the wide-shouldered, double-breasted silhouette of the 1980s (albeit in louche, contemporary style). Meanwhile, playful flourishes – from hanging glass bag charms and botanic motifs to a jaunty riff on the tricorne hat – captured an artistic sensibility, which Smith said was inspired by Jean Cocteau. Consensus in the room was that this was the designer’s best collection in some time. JM

Stone Island presents its latest ‘Prototype Research_Series’

It is well-known that Stone Island has an avid, cult-like following, a group of technical-wear obsessives who devote their time to establishing comprehensive collections of rare and limited-edition garments. The ‘Prototype Research_Series’ is one such project – an annual initiative which showcases the spoils of the brand’s latest Wonka-like experiments in textile manufacturing, for which they remain best known (we took a trip to their extraordinary research lab in Ravarino, Italy last year, to find out more). For its ninth edition – presented in an immersive installation in Stone Island’s Milan headquarters last night – the technology in question was an ’air-blown lamination knit’, a 3D process which uses hot air to bond a membrane onto the chenille knit using an inflatable mannequin (doing it onto the ‘body’ in this way ensures perfect adhesion, according to the brand). 100 colourful pieces have been made in total – the race is no doubt on as to who can add it to their collection first. JM

A first look at the show set for Prada’s A/W 2026 menswear show

A first look at the OMA-conceived set for Prada’s A/W 2026 menswear show, taking place in Fondazione Prada this afternoon in Milan. Transforming the hangar-like Deposito space – where Prada traditionally holds its shows – the pastel-coloured set is a cross-section of a traditional Italian villa or palazzo, as if sliced through its floors. It comes complete with wood-panelled doors and fireplaces in differing marble hues.

Prada’s A/W 2026 menswear collection was about ‘evolution not erasure’

‘What can we build, from what we have learned?’ asked Miuccia Prada and Raf Simons at their A/W 2026 Prada menswear show this afternoon, which took menswear hallmarks – from cuffed shirts to double-breasted tailoring – and reimagined them in renewed proportions.

Presented in Fondazione Prada’s Deposito space – which appeared as if an Italian palazzo had been sliced away through its floors in a show set by OMA – the designers elaborated that this was a collection about ‘evolution not erasure’. ‘There is a sense of the before, which interests us, even as we search for the new,’ said Miuccia Prada. ‘That is a sign of respect – you want to move on but not erase what came before. Holding an idea of beauty and changing it into something new.’

‘We wanted to focus on important things, beautiful things that feel familiar but can be reconsidered,’ Simons added. ‘I have always liked that from the very start Miuccia’s work has been about challenging, questioning and investigating. [Here], we questioned what should remain, from the past – and what can you build, from what you learn?’

Read our full report on Prada’s A/W 2026 menswear show: ‘It’s a kind of archaeology’

Raf Simons likened his and Miuccia Prada’s latest menswear collection to a kind of ‘archaeology’. ‘There is a lot here from the past,’ he said backstage. ‘If you take the layers away, you always find a kind of beauty. There’s the knowledge that you still want to celebrate and use, but you also want to innovate.’

The show took place in Fondazione Prada’s hangar-like Deposito space, which this season had been transformed by OMA into the ruins of an Italian palazzo. Though there was no dust or rubble; instead, it was as if the various floors had been neatly cut away to reveal a cross-section of the rooms inside (in typical Prada style, they were painted in pastel shades and were installed with wood-panelling and marble fireplaces, suspended at height around the room). Only the jagged remains of ceiling beams and floorboards were evidence of any destruction having happened before.

Perhaps, then, this was a collection not of archaeology but of renovation: to make something that exists new, what do you keep, and what do you strip away? Or, as Simons elaborated: ‘We questioned what should remain, from the past – and what can you build, from what you learn?’

Continue reading our A/W 2026 Prada menswear show report.

Tod’s takes over Villa Necchi to present its latest menswear collection

For its latest menswear presentation, Tod’s once again took over Villa Necchi, the Piero Portaluppi-designed home on Via Mozart that is perhaps best known as the setting for Luca Guadagnino’s I Am Love. The house’s latest menswear collection was scattered across the villa’s ground floor, with the Gommino – its signature driving shoe – continuing to take centre stage. This season, it was the ‘Winter Gommino’, a heftier version of the style which also comes in a lace-up boot iteration (for A/W 2026, they had fluffy shearling or cashmere linings). For ready-to-wear, leather was central: a new ’Pashmy’ leather – named after the pashmina as a nod to its softness and lightness – was used to coach jackets and patch-pocket blazers. JM

Giorgio Armani holds first menswear show since the death of the eponymous designer

This morning, guests gathered at the Palazzo Orsini headquarters of Giorgio Armani on Milan‘s Via Borgonuovo for what would be the first menswear show since the death of the eponymous designer last September. What followed was a respectful continuation of the Armani’s singular aesthetic: namely, louche, unrestricted silhouettes and a rich melange of fabrics. This season, the nexus was ‘cangiante’, an irridescent silk, that here became a ‘metaphor’ for the collection – ‘something in constant transformation... catching the light in ever new ways’. The show would mark the debut of Leo Dell'Orco, head of the men's style office of the Armani Group and Mr Armani’s right-hand man, who took an emotional bow at the show’s close. JM

With barely a moment for the dust to settle on 2025, a year dubbed by commentators as ‘fashion’s big reset’ (look back on Wallpaper’s 25 fashion moments of 2025 to see why), the cycle begins once again this January with the arrival of the A/W 2026 edition of Men’s Fashion Week. As ever, this will include stops in Florence for Pitti Uomo, the historic menswear trade fair which happens twice-yearly, Milan and Paris, the latter providing the bulk of this season’s schedule.

Though notably quieter than Women’s Fashion Week, which begins next month in New York, there will still be a number of intriguing moments to look out for – not least Jonathan Anderson’s sophomore menswear collection for Dior, after debuting at the house last June. With numerous big-name houses sitting out the men’s schedule this season – including Loewe, Balenciaga and Lanvin – it will likely prove the standout show of the week. Elsewhere in Paris, Véronique Nichanian will hold her swansong show for Hermès – a no-doubt heartfelt affair which will celebrate a record-breaking 37-year tenure defined by both commercial and critical success.

From this season’s roster of Pitti Uomo guest designers to Paul Smith’s return to Milan, we look forward to the imminent Men’s Fashion Week A/W 2026 and the schedule’s defining moments.

Pitti Uomo (13–16 January 2025)

Historic menswear fair Pitti Uomo, which centres around Florence’s 14th-century Fortezza da Basso – as well as a handful of dramatic locations across the Cradle of the Renaissance – takes place twice-yearly, coinciding with Men’s Fashion Month (generally, attendees take the train from Florence to Milan after its conclusion, where the month continues). Alongside the main fair – which will see showcases from Brunello Cucinelli, Piacenza 1773 and Caruso, among others – are a handful of guest designers, which this season are headlined by Hed Mayner, who will show his A/W 2026 collection at the event (previous guest designers have included Raf Simons, Grace Wales Bonner and Martine Rose, among others).

Mayner, who shows each season in Paris and is known for his inventive riffs on wardrobe staples, says he is ‘excited to show [his] work in such an amazingly rich and historical city like Florence... This new context will encourage me to try new things.’ He will show in the Palazzina Reale di Santa Maria Novella, an imposing modernist building in the same complex as Santa Maria Novella station. He will be joined by fellow guest designer Soshi Otsuki, who hails from Japan and won the 2025 LVMH Prize for Young Fashion Designers. He has chosen the refectory of Santa Maria Novella church for the occasion, expressing his ‘deep honour’ to be chosen as one of the season’s guest designers.

Milan Fashion Week Men’s (16–19 January 2025)

On Friday 16 January, eyes will turn to Milan, where the Italian style capital will host the latest edition of Milan Fashion Week Men’s. Despite a somewhat scant schedule – certainly in comparison to Paris – there remains a handful of shows which will no doubt define the season ahead. Most notably, Prada, where Miuccia Prada and Raf Simons will show their latest collection on Sunday afternoon (the house’s highly influential collections often will set the tone for the upcoming month of shows, and beyond). Zegna, meanwhile, will switch from closing proceedings to opening them – the house will now show at 3pm on Friday 16 January – while Ralph Lauren will make his return to the Milan runway with a menswear presentation that same evening. Paul Smith is also returning to Milan after showing in the city last season; he joins a raft of the city’s mainstays, including Dolce & Gabbana, DSquared2 and Giorgio Armani, the latter hosting the first menswear show since the death of the house’s eponymous founder last September. Emporio Armani, meanwhile, will sit this menswear season out.

Paris Fashion Week Men’s (20–25 January 2025)

Making up the bulk of the schedule is Paris Fashion Week Men’s, which will begin with a no-doubt blockbuster show from Pharrell Williams at Louis Vuitton on January 20 and run all the way until the evening of January 25 (Jacquemus will close the month on Sunday night). Standout moments include a much-anticipated sophomore men’s collection from Jonathan Anderson at Dior – his first show last summer was critically lauded, and arrived in stores earlier this January – while Véronique Nichanian will bow out after a 37-year tenure at Hermès. She will hold a final show on the evening of Saturday 24 January, before her successor, British designer Grace Wales Bonner, takes over the Parisian house’s menswear collections later this year. New to the schedule this season is underground Bologna-based label Magliano (the brand usually shows in Milan), joining a roster of major names including Rick Owens, Comme des Garçons, Dries Van Noten, Issey Miyake and Sacai. Meanwhile, Willy Chavarria – one of the Wallpaper* USA 400 for 2025 – will continue to show in Paris this season, the third season showing away from his native New York.

Covent Garden has long been the home of Paul Smith: the British label’s headquarters and creative studio reside on Kean Street, while his store on Floral Street – opened in 1979 – is the brand’s most well-known retail address.

It feels apt, then, that the eponymous designer is lending his hand to another neighbourhood institution this festive season, conceiving the decorations for the Royal Opera House as it enters its busy Christmas programme (home to both Britain’s Royal Ballet and Royal Opera, the coming months will see productions of Tchaikovsky’s The Nutcracker, Handel’s Ariodante and Puccini’s Turandot).

Paul Smith’s festive takeover of London’s Royal Opera House

Revealed today (6 November 2025), the ‘festive takeover’ centres around a vast 18ft-tall Christmas tree erected in the Paul Hamlyn Hall, the building’s light-filled conservatory on Drury Lane (originally built in 1859 as a flower market-cum-eveningtime dance hall, it was renovated and re-erected in 1996). Thematically, Smith said he was intrigued by the idea of ‘going behind the curtain’ – as such, the tree features backstage ephemera, from ropes, tassels and swathes of green velvet, to props sourced from the Opera House’s archives (look closely and you will spot fans, musical instruments and candelabras).

‘I have had many memorable moments at the Royal Opera House, but most special was my recent visit to the props department,’ Smith tells Wallpaper*. ‘It’s incredible how much artistry goes into each production – it is very similar to my own runway shows. I love the vibrant energy of the “backstage” and being able to celebrate the craft behind the curtain in the tree design was important to me.’

The Nottinghamshire-born designer has also added some decorations of his own: namely, a series of baubles in his ‘Signature Stripe’, a longtime motif of the label. Elsewhere, a series of miniature figures of skiers and ice skaters can be glimpsed when up close (a kind of festive Where’s Wally?), while baskets of baubles and step ladders give the appearance that the tree remains in the process of being decorated.

Smith’s takeover continues on the Davies Terrace, where a series of Christmas trees appear to be bursting out of crates, like those used to store the Opera House’s props. Here, they are lined with Signature Stripe fabric, while a series of handwritten messages from the designer decorate the terrace space – ‘the hope is to fill onlookers with festive joy,’ he says.

The project marks the first such takeover at the Opera House, a testament to the popularity of guest-designed Christmas trees across the British capital – perhaps most memorably at Claridge’s hotel, where fashion designers from John Galliano to Karl Lagerfeld have designed the lobby tree for the past two decades. Last year, it was the turn of Smith, who unveiled a playful Christmas tree that aimed to bring the ‘countryside in the centre of London’ and included a menagerie of wooden animals (Burberry’s Daniel Lee will design this year’s tree; the results will be revealed later this month).

‘As with all my collaborative projects, I wanted to make sure that there are shared values between both partners and with the Royal Opera House, there are just so many,’ says Smith. ‘Besides being neighbours for nearly 50 years, we are both committed supporters of the arts. I really wanted to highlight this appreciation for craftsmanship in the tree design – you can find nods to various Royal Opera House productions combined with my own objects of curiosity.’

Paul Smith’s festive takeover of the Royal Opera House will be on view until January 5, 2025.

paulsmith.com

You would be hard-pressed to find two more perennial symbols of British style than Barbour and Paul Smith. The former’s signature wax jackets have outfitted royal monarchs and Glastonbury-goers alike; the latter, whose eponymous creative director was knighted in 2000, has honed a vision of British dressing that imbues Savile Row tailoring with a sense of whimsy, eccentricity and play (Smith’s calling card is his rainbow-hued ‘signature stripe’, which has adorned everything from suit linings to hot-air ballons).

In fact, the release of a new collaborative collection – titled ‘Paul Smith loves Barbour’ – begs the question of why this partnership has not happened sooner. As Smith explains, the two brands share a lot of ‘common ground... an unwavering focus on quality and timeless design, but also an innate understanding of the specific qualities that make British style unique’. The 33-piece collection mines these codes further: spanning versions of the wax-coated ‘Bedale’ jacket, gilets, sweaters and even an umbrella, it is inspired by the idea of the British country fairs and shows.

Country life: ‘Paul Smith loves Barbour’

Capturing a mood of eccentricity and humour (Martin Parr’s photographs of English fairs and street parties could well have been on the moodboard), seeing the classic Barbour jacket updated with fresh details – from brightly hued versions of the signature moleskin neck tab to ‘signature striped’ grosgrain trims, and an oversized interior label in Yves Klein blue inspired by the invitation design for The Smiths’ S/S 2012 show (the motif also features on a best-in-show tote bag). Other clothing includes striped oversized sweaters and a T-shirt printed with a playfully skewed photograph of a Fresian cow.

Elsewhere, there is the idea of customisation: detachable hoods mean that colours can be mixed and matched, while a series of metal animal badges – from parrots to bunny rabbits and cows – can be purchased to adorn your new Barbour. Rounding out the collection is a series of other accessories: Wellington ankle-boots with colourful trims, a tartan cap and beanie hat, as well as a slouchy messenger bag in Barbour’s signature wax-treated canvas. ‘Unexpected, and full of personality,’ says Smith of the collaboration – a summation of the energetic British designer’s longtime approach to design.

‘Paul Smith Loves Barbour’ is available from Paul Smith’s website and selected stores.

paulsmith.com

Last night, Quadrophenia, A Mod Ballet previewed at Islington's Sadler's Wells Theatre, where it will run until 13 July 2025. The production is adapted from The Who’s 1973 rock opera Quadrophenia, written by the band’s Pete Townshend, which inspired the cult 1979 film.

This is far from a traditional ballet. There were no tutus or tights – no sweeping scores by Tchaikovsky or Prokofiev. Instead, the performance featured offbeat choreography by Paul Roberts, a dynamic orchestral arrangement by Rachel Fuller and Martin Batchelar, and costume design by Paul Smith.

Quadrophenia, A Mod Ballet tells the story of Jimmy, a disillusioned mod wrestling with various facets of his identity, set against the backdrop of the famed mods versus rockers feud – a rivalry as emotionally charged as any in Romeo and Juliet or West Side Story.

Visually, the production is an exuberant showcase of mod style – the parka is a recurring symbol, discarded (spoilers ahead) when a tormented Jimmy attempts to take his own life, and taken up once again when he changes his mind. Elsewhere, there are polos, RAF target motifs and, of course, sharp tailoring: slim-fitting, narrow-lapelled, cigarette-silhouette suits in bold colours and patterns. In short, it was a stage tailor-made for Paul Smith.

Known for his crisp cuts, colourful linings and playful detailing, the eponymous founder of the brand, now 78, began his career in the late-1960s as a tailor, dressing actual mods in suits not unlike the ones seen in the production.

For Quadrophenia, A Mod Ballet, Smith created era-appropriate tonic suits in a subtle check. The eagle-eyed will also notice a stone-coloured raincoat lifted straight from Paul Smith’s A/W 2024 collection worn by one of the cast.

But this wasn’t simply a case of nostalgic styling. The costumes had to allow for full range of movement – not something that tailoring typically accommodates. The Paul Smith team responded with smart adaptations like articulated sleeve gussets and specially cut trousers. Each suit was custom-made for its dancer, ensuring that style never came at the expense of performance.

As far as costume collaborations go, this Mod ballet and Paul Smith are a natural fit.

Get tickets here

The good thing about having an office overflowing with a lifetime of memorabilia like Paul Smith? You never know when something special from the past might pop up and inspire you next.

Recently, it was a souvenir book from Cairo that reappeared as if from nowhere that Smith had picked up while exploring the Pyramids with his wife, Pauline, many moons ago. Featuring scenes depicting the joy of travel in a hot-house palette with a healthy dose of nostalgia, the keepsake became the starting point for the S/S 2026 collection unveiled in Milan on Saturday afternoon.

Paul Smith on his Milan Fashion Week debut

‘One of the girls [in the office] must have pulled it out to look at it and as soon as I saw it, I thought it would be a great starting point for this show,’ enthused Smith during a preview with Wallpaper* ahead of the show. ‘Look at all these lovely colours and then look at my colours; we’ve got the green, the blue, the red, the yellow, the pink! This show is all about the colours you see when you travel.’

Opting to show in Milan for the first time in his brand’s 54-year history, the parallels between the designer’s appetite for new adventures and a collection of clothes to do just that played out on the catwalk.

Silk shirts with abstract sunsets in fuchsia, tangerine, bright green and sky blue came alongside striped twinset knits; jackets in ‘tumbled leather’ were patch-worked with oversized flowers and stems hand drawn by the studio; and super lightweight suits crafted from a silk-blend he has coined ‘compact’, ‘which means they’re woven very, very tightly, which means they've got all this lovely springiness to them,’ he explained. All had lived-in, love-worn charm.

‘Quite a lot of the clothes have got quite an old feeling to them, which is interesting,’ he said. ‘Don’t just always dismiss the past, you know, because so so much [present-day life] is about what's next, what’s next, what’s next.’

To accent the capsule travel wardrobe, details inspired by trinkets collected by the Smiths from markets on their travels punctuated every look. ‘Funny little things,’ according to Smith, that varied from shells to talismans and appeared as buttons, cuffs, and decoration on berets. In a playful self-referential nod, each model had a keyring hanging off their belt loop just like the designer.

Staged at Smith’s Italian HQ that had been transformed from office to catwalk for the occasion, the collection was an opportunity to bring people together in an intimate space that riffed off a traditional salon-style presentation in a home-away-from-home environment, said Smith.

‘It's lovely and simple, and so intimate here,’ he said. ‘I want people to be close enough to the clothes to really see them and [the details]. It’s good to make people look a bit closer and discover all the details.’

It also provided the chance for Smith to show in his beloved Italy, where he has owned a house since the 1990s. ‘I’ve always shown in Paris because when I started [in 1970], it was the only place I could hold a show and so I’ve always been loyal, ’ he said. ‘But we are very good friends with [this] country. There’s a positive spirit and it’s [the home of] the bella figura, right? They work to live rather than live to work. Which is a big difference here.’

The reception at Saturday’s show proved it was a choice worth making – and waiting for the designer swung down the steps to a rapturous reception. For S/S 2026 at Paul Smith, it seems timing is everything.

paulsmith.com

The storied Wave House in Palm Desert, known for its distinctive curving roof, begins a new chapter as ‘Desert Wave’, a bookable escape. Following its restoration by Stayner Architects, the midcentury modern masterpiece has undergone an interior refit by Design Within Reach (DWR) in partnership with design-led vacation rental operator Boutique.

The property was built in 1955, designed by Southern California-born architect and inventor Walter S White (who had previously worked under Rudolph Schindler and Albert Frey) as a modernist getaway and sculptor’s studio for Miles C Bates. The home is still a standout among the many lauded midcentury homes in the Coachella Valley community.

In 2018, the house was added to the National Register of Historic Places and purchased by Los Angeles-based Stayner Architects, who fully restored the dwelling. Its recent interior makeover leaves it filled with a curated selection of DWR’s Paul Smith Collection furniture, which celebrates Smith’s longstanding collaboration with Maharam. It includes limited-edition Herman Miller and Knoll classics dressed in Paul Smith x Maharam textiles, such as the ‘Eames Molded Plastic Side Chair’ and Eero Saarinen’s ‘Womb Chair’ in striking ‘Dots’, along with made-over DWR bestsellers, like the ‘Terassi’ outdoor chaise upholstered in ‘Concord Stripe’

We spoke exclusively with Christian Stayner, principal of Stayner Architects, on the home’s next chapter and that groundbreaking roof design.

Stayner Architects on the Desert Wave

Wallpaper*: How did your purchase of the iconic Wave House come about?

Christian Stayner: We purchased the house from the City of Palm Desert. With [funds] from a state programme that has since been discontinued, they had acquired the property – which included a dilapidated house and an apartment building – with the intention of building affordable housing. [But] there was no money to build the housing, so things just sat there. When they went to demolish the house, the local historical society, which understood [its] architectural significance, raised hell and got the National Parks Department to list [it] on the National Historical Register. As the state programme wound down, the city was forced to liquidate the property to return the funds.

W*: Was the plan all along to restore it and rent it out?

CS: We worked closely with the city to balance the cost of keeping the house and its restoration with a financial model based on hospitality and making what is arguably architecturally the most important house in Palm Desert into a space that can be visited by the public. This was a different sort of public-private partnership than the roads, bridges, and hospitals that you typically hear about – it was about finding an innovative model to allow everyone to benefit from the outcome – us as the owners, the city in having an important landmark, our neighbours by removing a long-term eyesore, and the public in getting to enjoy a house that would otherwise be off-limits.

W*: What was the inspiration behind the restoration?

CS: After it was completed in 1955, the house went through great transformations. Rather than turn back the clock to a sanitised midcentury past, we felt it was important to keep and acknowledge some of the blemishes from the rough history this house experienced; to realise some of the innovations that Walter S White attempted to include in the house but failed due to the technology being too new; and to go beyond the visual to consider how restoration can include intangibles like light levels and qualities, temperature and humidity, smell and sound.

W*: Were there any challenges in restoring the innovative ‘rollercoaster’ roof design?

CS: The roof had failed and had been compromised by a series of bad renovations and alterations. Though not visible, we fixed many of its original design flaws – in 1955, there wasn’t the advanced building chemistry of adhesives, foam insulation, and waterproofing membranes that we now have available. White anticipated so many innovations that would later arrive: the recent adoption of mass timber, of which this is a prototype decades ahead, earth ducting that distributes the cool air underground during the summer, self-shading in the desert, and onwards.

W*: How involved were DWR and Paul Smith with the interiors?

CS: DWR brought in key items from the Paul Smith Collection for this activation, bringing new life to the house through this collaboration. In the fall, the original furniture for the house will return: all of which is archival vintage pieces, largely 1930s to 1960s Scandinavian and Michigan [designs].

W*: What is your favourite part about the home and the collection?

CS: The light quality of the desert at the home is magical – and the house acts as a prism that multiplies and calls your attention to how light in the California desert changes during the day and throughout the year. As for the collection, Paul Smith’s stripes are both evocative of the 1960s while being contemporary to today.

The Desert Wave is located at 73697 Santa Rosa Way, Palm Desert, CA 92260, United States; boutique-homes.com

Secret 7”, the charitable initiative which invites creatives both established and up-and-coming to submit artwork for the sleeves of 700 vinyl records, is back for its ninth edition. The event is presented by War Child, the charity that will be the recipient of the proceeds, which provides protection, education and mental health support to children in conflict zones.

The initiative selects seven tracks from global musicians, pressing each onto 100 limited-edition 7” vinyl records. Secret 7” then asks creatives to design a one-of-a-kind sleeve for each record, interpreting the track in any style or medium they want. This year, the event partnered with Design and Art Direction’s New Blood initiative, which hosted an open call for emerging talent to take part.

The headline artists for 2025 have now been revealed, and it’s a star-studded agenda, with sleeves designed by, among many others, Turner Prize-winning sculptor Antony Gormley OBE RA; fashion designer Sir Paul Smith; The Cure frontman Robert Smith; artist and designer Yinka Ilori MBE; multimedia artist Haroon Mirza; multidisciplinary artist Ken Nwadiogbu; sound-inspired painter Andrew Pierre Hart; contemporary painter Yooyun Yang; and Radiohead’s longtime collaborator and visual artist Stanley Donwood. Yinka Ilori will also create etched designs on all 700 records, wrapping them in bright colours.

The result is 700 distinct records that blur the boundaries between music and collectible art. These will be showcased at Greenwich Peninsula’s NOW Gallery from 11 April until 1 June 2025, and will be available for auction throughout. The designers’ identities are kept secret until all the items are sold, meaning that buyers won’t know who designed their sleeve, or which track is inside it, until after purchase – hence the name Secret 7”.

The seven tracks featured on the records are Warsong by The Cure, Be More Kind by Frank Turner, Merchant of Paradise by Gregory Porter, Beautiful People by Jessie Ware, Black Rain by Keane, Return to Oz by Scissor Sisters, and Sophie Ellis-Bextor’s new song, which is exclusive to Secret 7", Devotion.

During its nine-year run, Secret 7” has produced and sold 5,600 one-of-a-kind records, raising over £700,000 for charity, and has attracted contributions from artists and designers including Sir Anish Kapoor, Yoko Ono, Sir Peter Blake, David Shrigley and Ai Weiwei. The initiative has also pushed boundaries of what a record artwork can be, with past sleeves having been made from concrete, felt, lego, acrylic, clay and stitchwork.

secret-7.co.uk

As seen in the March 2025 Style Issue of Wallpaper* (on newsstands now), we explore S/S 2025’s defining trends – from illusory trompe l’oeil to transparent layers and gravity-defying spiralling silhouettes – through 12 arresting looks and accessories, for men and women.

Trompe l’oeil (top left)

‘Truth and pretence, the real and the unreal,’ said co-creative directors Miuccia Prada and Raf Simons of their S/S 2025 menswear collection, which was filled with trompe l’oeil illusions – a response, no doubt, to our disorienting post-truth era, where nothing is quite what it seems. Their womenswear collection followed a similar track: like this coat, its surface printed to give the effect of faux fur.

Cut-outs (top right)

Bold acts of construction have long defined Florentine house Ferragamo, whether the vertiginous ‘Rainbow’ wedge heel – created for Judy Garland in 1938 – or the sculpted surface of the ‘Wanda’ bag. Current creative director Maximilian Davis picked up the mantle for S/S 2025, using the house’s atelier to extraordinary effect with leather mesh jackets and skirts cut to the shape of Ferragamo’s historic ‘Gancini’ motif.

Reimagined plaid

Plaid made something of a return this season, with designers evoking the humble material to suggest a mood of teenage rebellion – a nod to plaid’s longtime synonymy with grunge and punk. At Acne Studios there were enormous plaid bows on skirts (‘the familiar, twisted,’ said creative director Jonny Johansson); nipped-waist checked shirts were infused with a mood of refinement at Bottega Veneta; while at Loewe, Jonathan Anderson placed floating layers of plaid over baggy chino-style pants – part of the designer’s ongoing interrogation of wardrobe archetypes.

Hybrid accessories

The mashed-up accessory – like this futuristic sneaker-cum-penny loafer by Fendi – was a throughline of the season, with designers proposing strange and surreal hybrids that appeared as one thing but were actually another. They seem fit for our online era: the effect is reminiscent of the kind of dizzying juxtapositions you find when whizzing through a social-media stream at speed.

Spiralling silhouettes

The spiralling staircase of New York’s Guggenheim Museum inspired the construction of Pieter Mulier’s latest Alaïa collection, where dresses looped around the body to gravity-defying effect. In a shift from Paris to New York, Mulier presented the collection at the Frank Lloyd-Wright-designed landmark, echoing a similar transatlantic trip Azzedine Alaïa took in 1985, showing at the city’s Palladium nightclub.

Puzzle-piece construction

Nicolas Ghesquière’s latest womenswear show for Louis Vuitton took place on a raised runway constructed from a puzzle-like collection of the house’s signature trunks in an array of finishes and hues. Such playful amalgamations continued in the collection itself, which featured a series of sandals constructed from chunky, bolted-down straps of leather, some adorned with coins and crystals.

Blown-up tailoring

‘The joy of looking, discovering and dressing,’ said Matthieu Blazy of what would be his final collection for Bottega Veneta (he was named artistic director of Chanel last December), hoping to evoke a sense of childhood wonder. Cue animal motifs, colourful tasselled wigs and blown-up silhouettes, as if a child was playing dress up in their parent’s closet. ‘We need joy. We need this moment for ourselves, and continue to play.’

Shifted waistlines

Recent seasons have seen the American designer Tory Burch – once the poster girl for all-American preppiness – take a more experimental approach with freewheeling collections rooted in fabric and form. For S/S25, clever construction sees knee-length skirts hover away from the waist for an unexpected silhouette – the type of twisted classic that has now become Burch’s forte.

Brown

If brown has been something of an overlooked shade on the runway, in recent seasons designers have begun to embrace the hue for its suggestion of nostalgic sartorial elegance – particularly its richest shades of chocolate and chestnut. Like this trench coat by Paul Smith, part of the designer’s reminiscence on Soho’s Italian coffee bars of the 1960s and their famous patrons, from Lucian Freud to Francis Bacon.

Transparency

‘The paradox of lightness through craftsmanship,’ said Nadège Vanhée of her latest outing for Hermès, presented amid a set constructed from raw artist’s canvases. Impossibly lightweight layers of sheer fabric suggested the initial brushstrokes of a painting, while also proposing a mood of feminine sensuality, long a hallmark of Vanhée’s collections for the Parisian house.

Open arms

Jonathan Anderson described his latest menswear outing for his eponymous London-based label as ‘irrational clothing’, a nod to the surreal blown-up silhouettes, supersized knits and balloon-like protrusions of fabric. Though, as is his knack, the strangeness proved seductive, like a series of oversized gilets that proposed arms-out dressing as the mode du jour.

Deconstruction

The ritual of dressing, of putting on your clothes in the morning and removing them at night, was the inspiration behind Victoria Beckham’s S/S25 collection. ‘Observing the physical relationship between skin and garment,’ led the British designer to pieces turned inside out or deconstructed – like a series of sliced-away tailoring, as if still in the process of creation.

Models: Loka Lindaregard at Models 1, Reuben Larkin at Linden Staub. Casting: Ikki Casting at WSM. Hair: Mayuko Nakae using Oribe. Make-up: Faye Bluff at Of Substance Agency using Ilapothecary. Manicure: Sabina Uzunovic at Snow Creatives using Nailberry. Photography assistants: Guillaume Mercier, Julie Robinson. Fashion assistant: Lucy Proctor. Production assistant: Archie Thomson.

A version of this article appears in the March 2025 issue of Wallpaper*, available in print on international newsstands, on the Wallpaper* app on Apple iOS, and to subscribers of Apple News +. Subscribe to Wallpaper* today.

Decorating your own Christmas tree is certainly an art form – although for most of us it may not extend too far beyond choosing a colour scheme and whether to go with or without lights. However, hotel Christmas trees are often elevated to the next level and will wow even the most discerning amateur. Whether adorned with AI baubles or 400 bellboy teddy bears, these are some of the most intriguingly decked-out trees around the world this year.

Hotel Christmas trees around the world

The Tokyo Edition hotels

The Tokyo Edition Toranomon, and The Tokyo Edition, Ginza, offer an alternative take on a classic Christmas tree. This year, the hotels have unveiled two sculptural installations by art director Yuni Yoshida in collaboration with the design brand 130 One Thirty. The concept was to create a ‘hotel within a hotel’. The result is two white ‘trees’ which have a delicate paper quality, and glow from within. Small windows have been carved into the installation to mimic that of lights or tinsel around a tree. Each ‘tree’ incorporates delicate design variations unique to each property.

The Tokyo Edition Toranomon is located at 4 Chome-1-1 Toranomon, Minato City, Tokyo 105-0001, Japan www.marriott.com

The Tokyo Edition, Ginza 2 Chome-8-13 Ginza, Chuo City, Tokyo 104-0061, Japan www.marriott.com

Ritz Paris

At Ritz Paris, the hotel’s bespoke Christmas tree has a focus on childhood nostalgia. The tree was designed by florist Anne Vitchen, who filled the tree with over 400 Ritz bellboy teddy bears. The hotel’s beloved mascot hasn’t just taken over the tree, but can be found in every corner of the hotel in a playful manner.

Ritz 15 Pl. Vendôme, 75001 Paris, France ritzparis.com

The Ned

The Ned has collaborated with whiskey brand The Macallan to unveil a collaborative Christmas tree which focuses on heritage and craftsmanship. The 22ft tree is inspired by the stunning distillery and the natural beauty of Speyside. The tree is adorned with red velvet bows, with copper baubles, an elegant nod to the distillery’s copper stills

The Ned is located at 27 Poultry, London EC2R 8AJ thened.com

Claridge’s

The unveiling of Claridge’s Christmas tree is always a momentous occasion. Last year, Paul Smith took over the 19ft tree in an ode to traditional toy making. This year, it is the turn of Burberry and its creative director Daniel Lee to imagine Claridge’s 2025 Christmas tree. At the centre of the 16ft tree’s design are the numerous bows that adorn it, each one crafted from surplus Burberry fabric (Lee said he chose the leitmotif because the bow was a ‘Victorian symbol of unity’). The top of the tree features a golden crown in lieu of a star or fairy, while the floor around the tree is piled with Burberry cushions and populated with oversized chess pieces.

Claridge’s is located at Brook St, London W1K 4HR www.claridges.co.uk

The Barcelona Edition

With avant garde flare, The Barcelona Edition has collaborated with Fabricio Giordano, founder and creative director of Flore Studio, a floral design studio and flower, plant and orchid boutique. Giordano gave a classic Christmas tree a contemporary twist by wrapping it in a net casing. Sharing on Barcelona Edition’s Instagram, Giordano said, ‘To wrap is to embrace, to contain, to turn inward, and a loving gesture. This year’s festive tree stands as a manifesto to embrace who we are and what we live, through abstract beauty.’

Barcelona Edition is located at Av. de Francesc Cambó, 14, Ciutat Vella, 08003 Barcelona, Spain www.marriott.com

The Rome Edition

You can find the Rome Edition's tree nestled in the hotel entrance. Designed by Milan-based artist, Sara Riccardi, she worked in close collaboration storied Turin workshop, Antica Fabbrica Passamanerie Massia Vittorio for this commission. The result is a striking tree comprised of textile compositions and cascading fringes in various shades of red. More than just a visual spectacle, it also engages sight and sound, with aluminium rods which echo vibrations. This is a contemporary tree not just to be admired, but also experienced.

The Rome Edition is located at Salita di S. Nicola da Tolentino, 14, 00187 Roma RM, Italy editionhotels.com

The Connaught

Outside The Connaught stands a 31-foot-tall Nordmann Fir tree, sourced from Denmark and designed by contemporary visual artist Urs Fischer. This is Fischer's 10th tree for The Connaught, and for 2025 he has taken inspiration from his installation ‘People’. AI-generated faces are placed within spheres, each lit with LED light – the tree captures people sharing collective experiences, and is rooted in togetherness.

The Connaught, Carlos Pl, London W1K 2AL www.the-connaught.co.uk

45 Park Lane

At 45 Park Lane, the evergreen Nordmann Fir has been designed by British sculptor Ian Turnock. For this year’s tree, Turnock was inspired by the stillness of winter, which he captured through sculptural decorations which reflect light and shadow in intricate patterns. There are metal finishes to the decorations which elevates the tree into a mesmerising installation, rather than a decorative object.

45 Park Ln, London W1K 1PN dorchestercollection.com

And so it begins: the unveiling of the Claridge’s Christmas tree has long heralded the start of the festive season, seeing the London hotel – and bastion of British hospitality – drafting a roll-call of the world’s best-known designers and brands to curate the iconic display. There has been an enormous stack of tree-shaped trunks (courtesy of Louis Vuitton) a futuristic crystalline cone (designed by Dior Men designer Kim Jones), and an ensemble of gold and silver umbrellas (by Christopher Bailey, created during his tenure as creative director of Burberry). Others have been designed by Karl Lagerfeld, Alber Elbaz, and John Galliano, among others.

This year it is the turn of another British institution, the fashion designer Sir Paul Smith, a longtime patron of Claridge’s (‘My wife Pauline and I have been staying and dining at Claridge’s for many years,’ he says). Unveiled today in the lobby of the hotel, his playful take on tradition comprises a 19ft Christmas tree adorned with 100 wooden bird boxes, alongside a multitude of glimmering baubles and bows (the latter in Smith’s colourful ‘signature stripe’). Befitting Smith’s off-kilter approach – which is defined by a bold use of colour and oftentimes humourous take on traditional British dress codes – the bird boxes feature elements like playing-card rooftops, or are adorned with playing cards or dice.

Paul Smith unveils his Claridge’s Christmas Tree

‘I wanted the tree to have a sense of open spaces and the countryside, the feeling of fresh air even though the tree is in the centre of London,’ Smith tells Wallpaper* of the tree’s playful design, which was conceived together with the artist Nik Ramage and Studiomama. Ramage – a longtime collaborator with Smith – describes his work as a ‘sculptor of the useless and absurd’, largely taking functional objects and incorporating them into strange, surreal machines (a mechanical ‘jelly wobbler’, for example, or a wooden head which endlessly bangs against a brick). ‘Nik is an artist we work with and he’s very creative and crafts surprises with everyday objects,’ says Smith. ‘He reminds me of the way my father used to work in his little garden shed, making things for the family out of scraps.’

While Ramage worked on the tree’s bird boxes, it was Nina Tolstrup and Jack Mama’s east London-based studio Studiomama who created the magical menagerie of wooden animals (in the vein of their own Off-Cuts series), which are gathered at the base of the tree. ‘They take off-cuts of wood that they find in the local workshop and make these marvellous fantasy animals out of them which is so charming and fun,’ Smith continues. The tree was unveiled by Smith this morning (20 November 2024), though a lucky few guests – including Wallpaper* – got a preview yesterday evening, with a luxury sleepover at Claridge’s to toast the occasion.

‘We have had the honour of welcoming Sir Paul and his family to the hotel for many years and we can’t wait to see his unique and inimitable take on the annual challenge of creating something magical for our lobby this festive season,’ adds Claridge’s general manager Paul Jackson. ‘Christmas is the most magical time of year for us all here at Claridge’s and we look forward to seeing guests and visitors immerse themselves in the creative and colourful world of Sir Paul Smith.’

paulsmith.com
claridges.co.uk

Paul Smith and Artek have unveiled their latest collaboration 'Artek Reimagined by Paul Smith', which unifies both brands' iconic timeless design. Carefully created on the foundation of functionality, quality, and seamless craftsmanship, Sir Paul Smith, who has been a long-time admirer of Artek founders' Aino and Alvar Aalto’s work, integrates his playful colour palette and signature stripes to create a bold new version of three of the Finnish furniture maker’s notable pieces: Stool 60, Screen 100, and Coat Rack 109, with each piece crafted in Finland.

Artek Reimagined by Paul Smith

The British designer, who is not afraid of venturing out of the status quo (as shown by the sunrise-inspired Gufram Cactus for his L.A store re-opening) and lives by his saying ‘you can find inspiration in everything’, added a playful take to Artek’s Stool 60, a fundamental and undoubtedly recognisable piece of furniture. 

Nodding to Smith’s adoration of cycling, he incorporated a racing-style stripe - which is a trademark within his designs and notably comes in 40 different colours - to the birch wood frame of the design signature. Narrowing down the colour palette to just four, the Stool 60 features vibrant poppy hues, and subtle varying wood stains across the seat and the three legs. Underneath the seat, the bottom is painted in an ultramarine blue, which reflects a hue used in Paul Smith's suits, and adds a playful quirk to an element which is often overlooked.

The second piece in the collection is an adaptation of Screen 100. Constructed from narrow slats, each varying in shades, naturally references the Paul Smith stripe quite effortlessly. Constructed from pine, it is stained with two of Artek’s house finishes, and three custom ones made expressly for Paul Smith. The muted pattern is repeated across the design with a subdued and organic 70s finish. To tie the collection together, Coat Rack 109 is a revived Artek design. Taking reference from luggage racks found on steam trains, it comes in the same colourway as the screen and stool, completing the collection of fun. ergonomic design with a discrete retro touch.

Artek Reimagined by Paul Smith launches 12 September, and will be available online at paulsmith.com, and in selected Paul Smith shops

The French designer Marine Serre, one of the guest designers of this season’s Florence menswear fair, Pitti Uomo 106, selected the 15th-century Villa di Maiano – located in the rolling hills just outside of the city – to present her S/S 2025 collection, which featured her most comprehensive menswear offering yet. Presented in the gilded light of the early evening, it was easy to see why designers like Serre have long chosen to show at Pitti Uomo, despite the relative upheaval of transporting a collection across borders. Here was a setting just about as cinematic as it gets, seeing models weave their way through the Edenic gardens towards the hedge mazes below, all the while the spires and domes of Florence providing a distant backdrop in the fading evening light. Afterwards, guests mingled on the lawns for aperitivo, with more than one noting their desire to uproot themselves to the Tuscan countryside.

Pitti Uomo 106: the highlights

Serre said that the collection was inspired by the glamour of Italian cinema, most astutely captured in the womenswear collection, a dramatic stream of confection-like gowns which came complete with the Italian tropes of headscarves, lace and veils. They marked a move onwards from the slick, crescent-moon second-skin pieces for which Serre has become known, and will likely please her celebrity fanbase. Other gowns, constructed from collaged hiking and tennis bags, recalled her earlier work with pieced-together, upcycled garments. It was clear that the setting had proved creatively inspirational for Serre, who seemed to find new freedoms away from Paris. A final white dress, emblazoned with the flags of Congo, Palestine, and Sudan, recalled her early slogan ‘A Radical Call for Love’. ‘The collection symbolises a call for peace,’ she said, noting that her models hailed from 25 different countries around the world.

At another villa earlier in the week – the 19th-century Villa Favard, created by Giuseppe Poggi – Paul Smith, the season’s other guest designer, revelled not in the grand or cinematic, but instead in the intimacy that Pitti Uomo affords (unlike Milan and Paris, a scant schedule of shows means more time for absorbing a designer’s collection). In one of the villa’s gilded salons, guests sat on stools as Smith talked through his latest collection’s various looks. ‘I think the world’s gone a bit mad with these shows everywhere around the world,’ he said, presiding over a room of gathered guests and press. ’I just think it’s so lacking in personality. So I thought, why don’t I just talk to everyone and show the collection?’ It was an astute way of showing the Paul Smith S/S 2025 offering, inspired by Soho’s Italian coffee bars and their artistic patrons, placing the ever-charismatic Smith front and centre.

Earlier that evening, fellow British designer Margaret Howell hosted an equally intimate drinks reception at her Florence store, marking ten years of the unique location, which is just steps from the River Arno. An accompanying photographic exhibition saw classic Margaret Howell pieces blown up on posters around the store, each chosen for its links to Italian manufacturing, which Howell said she wanted to highlight (Italy accounts for nearly half of the raw materials the brand uses, and 32 per cent of clothing and accessories production). ‘I have always chosen to work with specialist manufacturers and weavers [and] Italy has an innate understanding of make and quality that is unique to our industry,’ she said. ‘Opening a production office and shop in Florence has enabled us to build stronger relationships and to showcase their craft.’ In a show of support between two stalwarts of British fashion, Howell joined Smith’s apertivo hour at the specially constructed ‘Bar Paul’ at Villa Favard, just a short walk away.

At the historic Fortezza da Basso, where the main menswear fair takes place each season, Herno provided a showcase of its own distinct brand of Italian craft (founded in Piedmont, northern Italy, it began with the construction of coated cotton raincoats and has been an expert in fabric construction since). Transforming its longstanding pavilion at the fair into a stripped-back space divided by enormous video screens, the brand’s showcase of its collection illustrated the latest step in its evolution from outerwear expert to a comprehensive fashion label that caters to the various needs of a man’s wardrobe. Which is why, despite it being a S/S 2025 collection, the pieces came in a variety of weights – from high-summer seersucker sets, tennis wear and swimming shorts (a new addition to the brand’s roster) to warmer down pieces and an array of knitwear – which Herno said was purposely ‘transseasonal’, an astute pitch for the international, country-hopping consumer.

An equally comprehensive offering came from Missoni, which made its debut this season at the menswear fair, having previously shown at the brand’s Brera HQ in Milan during the city’s fashion week. Presented in the cool, salon-like interiors of the Construzione Lorenesei – a more sedate enclave than the busy, modern main pavilion – it was described as a collection which ‘moves across occasions and situations’. An array of slouchy knit cardigans, some adorned with the classic zig-zag Missoni motif, were at the collection’s centre, equally imaginable worn with the collection’s colourful swim shorts and sandals on a summer’s evening or as an enveloping wintertime layer. A demonstration of craft came in the cobalt-blue crystal coatings on garments, recalling the shimmer of ocean waters, while intricate knit jackets – some panelled with narrow lines of leather – were constructed on traditional artisanal looms.

At Brunello Cucinelli, there was a satisfying injection of colour this season, notably in vibrant shades of peach which added new interest to the designer’s classic silhouettes. This feeling of lightness ran through the collection, which featured roomy, technical jackets (Cucinelli said the silhouette was inspired by 1980s cuts), airy knit polos and pleated white pants, alongside capsule collections inspired by tennis and golf. Tailoring, meanwhile, was cut with a narrower line, while accessories spanned Western-inspired belts, leather-trimmed espadrilles and woven-knit ties. The collection was celebrated with a dinner at Serre Torrigiani on Pitti Uomo’s opening night, seeing guests – including the actor Jeff Goldblum and his wife Emilie Livingston – spill out onto the restaurant’s terraced Italian gardens, first constructed in the 16th century and here lined with candlelit dining tables. Deemed Florence’s secret ‘oasis’, it was yet another of the uniquely cinematic settings that continue to give Pitti Uomo its distinct allure.

uomo.pittimmagine.com

After 31 years, Paul Smith made his return to Florence menswear fair Pitti Uomo yesterday evening (11 June 2024), opening up the for-one-night-only ‘Bar Paul’ in Giuseppe Poggi’s Villa Favard, where espresso and spritzes were served on the riverside mansion’s sprawling lawns.

The occasion was the presentation of Smith’s S/S 2025 collection, marking a departure from his usual runway shows in Paris. Leading patrons through Bar Paul – which came complete with branded matchboxes, napkins and sugar packets – the designer hosted an intimate presentation in one of the villa’s salons, talking personally through each of the collection’s looks.

Bar Paul: Paul Smith hosts his S/S 2025 menswear collection at Pitti Uomo

It was, he said, a riposte to the increasing number of big-budget, around-the-world runway shows hosted by fashion’s major players. ‘I think the world’s gone a bit mad with these shows everywhere around the world,’ he said, presiding over a room of gathered guests and press. ’I just think it’s so lacking in personality. So I thought, why don’t I just talk to everyone and show the collection?’

The collection began, Smith said, with the establishment of an official archive in his home town of Nottingham, a project he has been working on for the past three years. Now numbering 4,600 pieces of clothing, he said the project had taken him back to being an 18-year-old and discovering London’s Soho.

‘The main thing we'd go for were the clubs – there was great music, a lot of jazz,’ he said. ‘And there were also these Italian coffee bars which had been founded in the 1940s. There was something called espresso – before then we’d been living on Nescafé.’

These coffee bars, and their famous patrons – including artists like Lucian Freud – inspired the collection’s easy, eclectic mood, where double-breasted blazers might be worn with flower-emblazoned jeans (a collaboration with Lee denim was introduced), or the loose, draped line of a pullover shirt inspired by an artist’s smock.

‘Many of the artists of the time, like Lucian Freud and Francis Bacon were living in the area and used to hang out in these bars,’ Smith said. ’A lot of these outfits are really based on how these artists dressed.’

It spoke to what Smith noted was a growing mood among shoppers, to purchase pieces which ‘add to their existing wardrobe’ rather than buying the traditional suit, shirt and tie at once. One specific inspiration was the way that Freud would wear his father’s bespoke wool suit jackets with a pair of paint-covered jeans.

The presentation finished with a warm round of applause for Smith, who remains one of menswear’s most respected names. Afterwards, guests spilled back out onto the villa’s lawns, where they were served an aperitivo in the golden evening light.

paulsmith.comuomo.pittimmagine.com

See more of what to expect from Men’s Fashion Week S/S 2025

And so it begins again: as the warm early days of June roll in, so too does Men’s Fashion Week S/S 2025, a Europe-wide menswear tour with stops in London, Florence, Milan and Paris, seeing designers both emerging and established present their vision for the season ahead.

Beginning today (7 June 2024), the first stop is London: the relatively scant schedule, with just a handful of designers showing over the weekend, serves as sedate warm-up for crowded days of shows in the coming days (accompanied by a new culturally minded schedule of talks and exhibitions). The next stop is Florence for historic menswear fair Pitti Uomo; there, subversive French designer Marine Serre – best known for her sliced-up, upcycled garments and signature crescent-moon print – and British design legend Paul Smith will both show as guest designers. 

In Milan, British designer Martine Rose joins the schedule for the first time, alongside heritage house Dunhill, which also makes the move from London to the Italian fashion capital (both will show on Sunday 16 June). Meanwhile, in Paris, highlights will include Pharrell Williams’ latest blockbuster menswear outing for Louis Vuitton and the final show from Dries Van Noten (the designer announced he would be exiting his eponymous brand last month).

Here, in an ongoing list, is everything Wallpaper* knows about Men’s Fashion Week S/S 2025. 

Men’s Fashion Week S/S 2025: what to expect

London Fashion Week (7 – 9 June 2024)

London Fashion Week’s 40th anniversary celebrations will continue this June with the event’s summer iteration, which, as in previous years, spans shows from both mens- and womenswear designers (prior to the pandemic, it was exclusively menswear on the schedule). This season, expect a new format from the British Fashion Council-helmed event, beginning with a program of activations at the Institute of Contemporary Arts – including exhibitions, panel discussions and performances – that will focus on highlighting designers spotlighting Black, South Asian and queer cultures. Elsewhere, across London a ‘40 for 40’ schedule will see 40 designers and brands host events across the city, while Soho nightspot Groucho Club will become a ’dynamic activation space’ hosting designers both established and emerging. 

‘The new format is a direct result of the conversations we are continuously having with the BFC community,’ says BFC CEO Caroline Rush. ’We want to ensure we are recognising the business needs of our designers and providing them with a global showcasing platform which is both relevant and beneficial. This iteration of London Fashion Week is a really exciting opportunity to future-proof and innovate the UK’s fashion showcasing capabilities and highlight the city’s point of difference during men’s fashion month.’

Elsewhere, in an intimate off-schedule presentation at his Docklands studio earlier this week (5 June 2024), Craig Green held his first runway show after a two-year hiatus, a heartfelt musing on ‘sons and fathers’. Over the weekend, a handful of other designers and brands will show on the relatively scant schedule, including Charles Jeffrey Loverboy, Qasimi and Denzilpatrick. 

Pitti Uomo (11 – 14 June 2024)

Each season, Pitti Uomo – a historic menswear and trade fair that takes place twice yearly in Florence, Italy – selects a handful of international guest designers to show as part of the unique line-up, which sees runway shows held in an eclectic array of venues across the city, from Renaissance palazzos to abandoned industrial lots. Recent iterations have seen appearances from Fendi, SS Daley, Martine Rose, Grace Wales Bonner and Luca Magliano, while Vivienne Westwood, Raf Simons, Giorgio Armani, Jonathan Anderson and Yohji Yamamoto have all previously shown as part of the definitive menswear event.

This year (see our Pitti Uomo 106 highlights) the first guest designer is Marine Serre, a buzzy French designer known for her sporty, subculture-infused pieces, which often feature reworked deadstock garments and her signature crescent-moon print (the latter, usually adorning second-skin tops, body suits and leggings, have gained her a legion of famous followers, from Beyoncé to Rosalía). Showing on 12 June 2024, she will present a menswear collection at a location that is yet to be announced. ‘I am really excited to present my next show in Florence,’ she says. ’We’re looking forward to bringing the essence of Marine Serre to Florence, mixing craftsmanship our way, and shaking the lines of what’s expected to be, bringing imagination at the service of transformation.’

Meanwhile, British design legend Paul Smith – who has shown at the fair previously – will begin proceedings with the launch of his S/S 2025 menswear collection on 11 June 2024. The choice of Pitti Uomo to show next season’s offering comes from the British designer’s ‘reverence for tailored clothing’, he says, noting that after first appearing as a guest designer in 1993, ‘the return to Florence feels like just the right thing to do’.

Milan Fashion Week Men’s (15 – 19 June 2024)

Highlights of Milan Fashion Week will no doubt include Sabato De Sarno’s sophomore menswear collection for Gucci, where he will continue to hone his elegant new vision for the house, which draws inspiration from the insouciant style of the Italian street. The show will take place on Monday 17 June, a move from last year’s Friday spot. Prada, meanwhile, will present its S/S 2025 collection amid a typically dynamic set created in association with OMA/AMO – Rem Koolhaas unpacked the architectural practice’s 25-year collaboration with Prada in Wallpaper’s March 2024 Style Issue.

Elsewhere, there is something of a British invasion: Martine Rose will show on Sunday 16 June in her first outing in the Italian city, as will heritage house Dunhill, which showed its first collection under new creative director Simon Holloway in London this past February. JW Anderson will also continue to show its menswear collections in Milan, also on Sunday evening.

Rounding out the schedule are Italian stalwarts Dolce & Gabbana, Zegna, Armani and Fendi, while rising Bologna-based brand Magliano will return to Milan after showing as guest designer at Pitti Uomo last season. MSGM, meanwhile, will celebrate 15 years with a co-ed show runway show on the morning of Saturday 15 June. ‘In June 2009, I presented the first MSGM men's collection alongside the women's resort,’ says founder Massimo Giorgetti. ’I would like to celebrate that memory and recreate the same energy.’

Paris Fashion Week Men’s (18 – 23 June 2024)

After the announcement that ex-Gucci creative director Alessandro Michele is set to take the helm at Valentino, replacing Pierpaolo Piccioli, fans of Michele will have to wait a little longer to see his vision for the Roman house – earlier this month, Valentino confirmed that it would not present a men‘s or haute couture collection in June, saving his debut for womenswear fashion week in Paris in September.

That said, an expansive schedule awaits elsewhere: notably, Pharrell Williams will show his third menswear collection for Louis Vuitton, which follows a Western-themed outing for A/W 2024 (a precursor of sorts to Beyoncé’s Cowboy Carter, the musician chose to wear a look from the collection for her appearance at the 2024 Grammys). His last June show, which marked his debut, saw him shutting down central Paris’ Pont Neuf for the extravaganza, while in January he erected an enormous box in Paris’ Jardin d'Acclimatation, complete with a flurry of faux-snow for the dramatic finale. His upcoming show will likely be just as social-media ubiquitous, taking place at 8.30pm on June 18, 2024. Another notable moment will be Dries Van Noten’s final show on the evening of June 22, after the designer announced he would be exiting his eponymous brand last month.

Elsewhere, expect impactful shows from Jonathan Anderson at Loewe, Véronique Nichanian at Hermès, and Rick Owens, who will reveal whether the move to hosting his shows in his own Paris home – as was the case for his last mens- and womenswear shows – is permanent. Watch this space.

Stay tuned to Wallpaper.com for more coverage from Men’s Fashion Week S/S 2025.

January marks the beginning not only of a new year, but a new season in style – gone are the winter collections of last year, in are the S/S 2024 collections, and with them the promise of brighter days ahead.

As part of Wallpaper’s Design Awards 2024 issue, we select the winning men’s and womenswear collections of S/S 2024 – and their standout looks – which will define a season of dressing ahead. These span Sabato de Sarno’s sensual new vision for Gucci (the designer called it a ’story of richness and lust... of sweat, dancing and singing’, and is pictured top left), the eclectic oppositions of Dries Van Noten’s womenswear, and Maximilian Davis’ expertly reduced Ferragamo tailoring. 

Winning collections came too from Miuccia Prada and Raf Simons at Prada, where they reckoned with beauty and craft, the sinuous lines of Kim Jones’ Fendi, or Matthieu Blazy’s extraordinary riffs on the quotidien at Bottega Veneta (here encapsulated his version of a working man’s tie, recrafted in leather). Or Lucie and Luke Meier’s gently oversized men’s Jil Sander tailoring, adorned with glimmering crystal broaches (pictured top right). 

The various looks are captured by London-based photographer Daisy Walker, and styled by Wallpaper* fashion and style director Jason Hughes. 

The standout looks of S/S 2024, selected by Wallpaper*

Courrèges

Dolce & Gabbana

Dries Van Noten

Acne Studios

Hermès

Wooyoungmi

Ferragamo

Saint Laurent by Anthony Vaccarello

Givenchy

Alexander McQueen

Carven

Isabel Marant

Bottega Veneta

Miu Miu

Paul Smith

Fendi

Dior

Prada

Balenciaga

Marni

Valentino

Loewe 

Models: Kerolyn Soares at IMG, Aaron Shandel at Wilhelmina. Casting: Ikki Casting at The Art Board. Hair: Adam Garland using Authentic Beauty Concept. Make-up: Jo Banach using Chanel Les Beiges Winter Glow and No.1 de Chanel Red Camellia Exfoliating Mask. Interiors: Olly Mason. Set build: London Art Makers. Photography assistants: Chloe Yates, Zillah Rauter. Fashion assistants: Kris Bergfeldt, Samela Gjozi. Hair assistant: Annabella Hudgell. Interiors assistant: Archie Thomson. Post-production: Lasso Studio. 

A version of this article appears in the February 2024 issue of Wallpaper* – dedicated to the Wallpaper* Design Awards 2024 – available in print from 4 January, on the Wallpaper* app on Apple iOS, and to subscribers of Apple News +. Subscribe to Wallpaper* today

A collaboration between function-forward power brand Braun and Paul Smith may not immediately feel like an obvious one, with a brand not known for monochrome futurism imbued with a joyful expression of colours. So what happened when the sartorial nous of Paul Smith was juxtaposed with the techy minimalism of the German brand?

With a portfolio of modernist, often Bauhaus-inspired designs, Braun is an award-winning brand known for domestic appliances, razors, and minimal alarm clocks. But they have always had a sleek line of watches with a spare, architectural vibe and have collaborated with Smith before (see the series of Braun and Paul Smith clocks).

The Braun watch range is based on a pared-down essence of timekeeping, so what has the coloured outlook of Paul Smith brought to the table? A lot as it happens, with a cheeky  twist on a well-known formula and some discreet rainbow pops. Known for low-key collabs with Off-White and Highsnobiety in the past, Braun flies under the radar with its curated quartz-powered range. But this time, Swiss ETA movements ratchet up the desirability with added British flair.

Together with Paul Smith, Braun dropped two slim sandblasted cases on integrated straps, with one sporting a dark gunmetal case, the other matte blasted steel. Both 40mm dials are matte black with black and white lumed hands, and crisp hour and minute markings. The smooth integrated PU strap is a flowing part of the case shape itself, but what about Sir Paul’s influence? The sandblasted steel model has the most discreet of sartorial touches. The clues are in a single scribble of Paul Smith’s signature at nine and a small, rainbow-coloured hand at 6.

Braun’s balance of function and aesthetic makes itself known in the architecturally shaped date window of both. Yes, they would look cleaner without it, but this is about essential readability, not minimalism, for the sake of it. The gunmetal-cased model has the most frivolous detail, with its dark monochrome cheered up by a vibrant sweeping seconds hand. With a rounded blue center and an unmistakable array of colours, the balance between Paul Smith’s signature stripes and the zen-matte background makes for an architectural bullseye.

paulsmith.com

For quite some time, the necktie has been relegated to an artefact of a bygone era, one of stuffy corporate wear and forced formality that in a post-pandemic world looked largely left behind.

It is with some surprise, then, that the tie has had something of a comeback in recent seasons, its death knell stilled by a new generation of designers who are using the classic accessory to represent something altogether more irreverent – a symbol of the past which in their hands is ripe for reinvention. 

The return of the shirt and tie

It might be in part down to the influence of Matthieu Blazy at Bottega Veneta, who featured a series of nappa-leather ties as part of a playful riff on corporate wear in his A/W 2023 collection. In its unexpected fabrication – which conjured a satisfying frisson of kink – it continued his desire to elevate the quotidian into extraordinary and seductive expressions of design.

Much of the tie’s appeal lies in its shape-shifting ability and multitude of iterations – whether the playful polka dots of Paul Smith (clashed here with a striped shirt and 1970s-tinged tailoring) or the heritage-inspired checks of Margaret Howell (team with a V-neck sweater for a contemporary exercise in layering).

At contemporary British tiemaker Marwood, meanwhile, the 2010-founded brand continues its desire to reinvent the accessory with distinctly modern designs in woven silk and British lace, each made in England. Here, their flecked tie in silk slub is combined with a vivid blue zip-up sweater by Jil Sander to striking graphic effect

A version of this story appears in the January 2024 Next Generation Issue of Wallpaper*, available in print, on the Wallpaper* app on Apple iOS, and to subscribers of Apple News +. Subscribe to Wallpaper* today!

The longstanding creative partnership between Sir Paul Smith and Maharam is duly being documented in a book designed by Maharam Media. Ongoing for the last 20 years, the collaboration’s evolution over the decades can be experienced firsthand through a collection of photographs by Nick Ballón at Smith’s office in London and illustrations by Andy Rementer.

Together, Smith and Maharam have created more than 40 textiles, wallcoverings and accessories that adapt traditional sartorial references by experimenting with pattern, colour and scale. Ranging from riffs on Smith’s signature stripes to adaptations of flea market finds, each design has emerged from an interest in reinterpreting classic motifs while embracing interdisciplinary exchange. 

Paul Smith and Maharam’s 20 years

Smith and Maharam initially crossed paths back in 2002 when Smith discovered Maharam’s reissue of Gio Ponti’s 1930 textile ‘I Morosi alla Finestra’ (The Lovers at the Window) during a Gio Ponti retrospective at the Design Museum in London. Smith’s request to repurpose the figurative silk window covering as a jacket lining led to incorporating Maharam’s archival textiles in shoe, hat, and bag designs. Maharam subsequently invited Smith to design a textile of his own. In 2003, Bespoke Stripe, a textile comprised of vibrant multi-coloured stripes embedded in a quintessential menswear pinstripe, was introduced as the first upholstery textile of what would be a fruitful and ongoing collaboration.

‘Maharam has been a real pioneer in its field for over 100 years – and I consider it a privilege to have spent the last 20 of them working with their dedicated team,’ says Smith. ‘There’s an art to creative collaboration, and their endless energy and enthusiasm have undoubtedly made this one a success.’

The book will be celebrated in a series of events in Australia, where a series of Artek’s ‘Stool 60’ by Alvar Aalto upholstered in a selection of Maharam textiles by Paul Smith will be on display. The events not only nod to Maharam and Smith’s 20 years of collaboration, but also to the stool’s 90th anniversary (‘Stool 60’ was also recently reinterpreted by Formafantasma) and Maharam’s 20th year of business in Australia. Filled with 20 highlights from the partnership that span both textile and Maharam Digital Projects, the joyful paperback book captures Smith’s characteristic playfulness and originality.

The book is available from maharam.com

Inspired by the liberated colour palette of Luis Barragán, Paul Smith’s Los Angeles address is known for its monolithic pink façade which – against the near-perennial blue skies of California – has become one of the city’s most photographed spots (such is its ubiquity as an Instagram backdrop, its comes with its own #pinkwall hashtag).

The store first opened its doors in 2005, and nearly two decades on, the designer has drafted Standard Architecture to give the unique location a ‘facelift’. Reimagining the interior with a carefully curated selection of objects and furniture, the re-do also involves the addition of a new VIP lounge with its own dedicated entranceway. As for what stays the same, fear not, the pink exterior remains. 

Colour theory: Paul Smith reopens pink Melrose store

‘Our inspiration for this redesign came from the experimental architecture that shaped the LA landscape around the middle of the 20th century,’ says Smith. ‘The new shop layout features a comprehensive redesign with multi-purpose, adaptable spaces, sculptural shelving, and a blend of custom and vintage furniture.’

Standard Architecture, meanwhile, said it wanted to make the interior a more ‘cohesive’ experience for customers, one that moves seamlessly between menswear, womenswear and the brand’s homeware offerings. Partition walls, in warm stone-coloured tones, gently divide the space, while amphitheatre-style tiered displays show off the brand’s accessories offering.

As in all of Smith’s spaces, the designer’s eclectic eye – which often includes icons of design and furniture – defines the objects that populate the interior, here spanning both vintage objects and artworks, as well as custom-made creations. A new ‘sunrise’ version of the Gufram Cactus – an icon of 1970s design – also appears. Smith collaborated with Standard Architecture on all elements of the space.

A vivid use of colour also runs throughout, in typical Paul Smith style – from mosaic artworks to modular shelving stacked high with brightly hued model cars, mobiles and lamps. Together, it is a reinvigorated vision for one of the world’s most memorable stores. 

The reinvigorated Paul Smith at 8221 Melrose Avenue, Los Angeles is open now. 

paulsmith.com

In 2000, Paul Smith released Father & Son, a two-volume book of photographs comprising both ‘caught images’ by the British fashion designer and the ‘light, witty’ compositions of his father Harold, who had passed away just prior to its publication. United by a shared love of humour, juxtaposition, colour and play, the book is a testament to how our passions and fascinations are so easily passed from one generation to the next (Smith remains an avid amateur photographer).

The rare tome – which is now out of publication – provided the starting point for the latest edition of &PaulSmith, an ongoing collection and mentorship project from the veteran designer that began with Ahluwalia &PaulSmith in August 2022. There, Smith collaborated with London-based designer Priya Ahluwalia on a special capsule collection; this time, with the help of the Council of Fashion Designers of America, he looked further afield to New York-based label Commission, which recently featured on the Wallpaper* USA 300. 

Family values: Commission &PaulSmith

Founded by Dylan Cao and Jin Kay in 2018, the LVMH Prize-nominated label draws inspiration from the pair’s shared Asian-American heritage and the working dress codes of their own parents while growing up in Vietnam and South Korea respectively (both would later move to the USA, where they are now based). As such, hallmarks of their style include riffs on 1980s corporate attire, vintage sportswear and archetypal American garments, from cowboy shirts to denim and workwear. 

‘American fashion is an ever-changing concept as it’s been historically shaped by the many cultures and subcultures arriving from elsewhere,’ they told Wallpaper* in our August 2023 ‘Made in the USA’ issue, and a desire to expand what being an Asian in America means has run throughout their oeuvre since the brand’s founding. 

‘There was really no other brand [at the time of founding Commission] that spoke to being Asian and our heritage the way that we wanted to, in America – representation was either scarce or generalised because our industry’s references to Asianness were honestly quite narrow and questionably stereotypical,’ they say. ’Through Commission, we want to explore and reconstruct the idea of American classics through this new lens.’

The new collection returns to the pair’s preoccupation with generational style, looking towards Smith’s designs from the 1990s and early 2000s for inspiration. ’Our nostalgia for this time is a foundation of our process, something which was on our minds when we revisited Paul’s archive. We wanted to marry [those archival pieces] with our DNA and narrative which essentially is about reinterpreting the past,’ say Cao and Kay, who note that their parents’ style ’informed our sense of shape, values and proportions’, particularly the tailoring which they would wear ‘from morning to night’. 

‘There’s a subversive sense of irreverence, mundanity and functionality that overlaps with how we approach Commission menswear,’ they continue. ‘We wanted to honour the grunginess of British punk and a touch of preppiness [which is intrinsic to] Paul’s identity while injecting the casualness of downtown New York and its attitude to dressing.’ The idea of the street – which also inspires the accompanying campaign – in part comes from the pages of Father & Son, whereby photographs captured through shop windows in Japan conjured the irreverent mood of the collection.

As such, there are references to British culture – whether broad overcoats or nods to the punk movement in eyelet-covered handmade belts and snake-print pants or T-shirts adorned with lips – and the street style of their native New York. Other pieces riff on what are now Commission hallmarks: striped ties which recall vintage office uniforms, double-knee trousers (in part recalling traditional carpenter pants), and boxy cropped jackets with pointed collars. A shirt adorned with faded roses, colourful striped knitwear, and an oversized boxy double-breasted jacket in worsted wool – a nod to Smith’s decades-long exploration of tailoring – complete the collection. It will be available from Paul Smith stores and Commission’s website, as well as on Canadian e-retailer SSENSE.

As with Ahluwalia &PaulSmith, the collaboration extends beyond the collection, with Commission offered mentorship and support with a particular focus on business development (during Paris Fashion Week, Cao and Kay were given a space within Smith’s own showroom to meet with potential buyers and stores). ‘This was our first collaboration for Commission but we have both worked with larger-scale brands before,’ say the pair, who previously worked at New York-based labels including R13 and Prabal Gurung before beginning their own brand. ’But the mentorship aspect was an attractive addition to just a typical collaboration proposal. [It was nice to] hear input from Paul’s merchandising and financial planning teams to help us better structure the company... They [also] offered a lot of technical advice which was extremely helpful for us.

‘Paul Smith represents a sense of timelessness and consistency in menswear that’s quite admirable for us, both as a brand and a business,’ they continue. ‘The collaboration has only furthered this by showing us how committed the team is to preserving the brand’s DNA and design language while giving us enough room to experiment and complement it with our own approach.’

‘Tapping into new ideas is exactly why I wanted to start the &PaulSmith series and Commission are brimming with them,’ adds Smith. ‘I also have a huge sense of pride in our archive and I’m so glad that Dylan and Jin have been inspired by pieces from past collections and put their own truly unique spin on them.’

Commission &PaulSmith is available from select Paul Smith stores and the Commission website, as well as SSENSE.

paulsmith.com
commission.nyc
ssense.com

The latest interpretation of the Gufram Cactus by Paul Smith sees the iconic 1972 design by Guido Drocco and Franco Mello transformed with a sunrise-inspired palette. The launch marks the reopening of the designer’s Melrose Avenue boutique in Los Angeles, whereby the exterior is painted in a distinctive pink hue matched on the Cactus’ body. 

It is not the first time Gufram collaborated to transform the design: having worked with Smith himself on a psychedelic Cactus in 2016 (the first time the design’s colour was changed by someone else), the Italian radical design company most recently collaborated with A$AP Rocky on the ’Shroom Cactus’ and with the Andy Warhol foundation on a trio that celebrated the artist’s aesthetic. 

Gufram Cactus by Paul Smith

‘The Cactus is obviously an icon of 1970s design – from the same decade that I started my own business – and I couldn’t pass up the opportunity to put my own spin on it once again,’ says Smith. At the Cactus’ base is inscribed Smith’s favourite motto, ‘every day is a new beginning’, both a nod to his opening in Los Angeles and the Cactus’ stylised sunrise colours. 

The Sunrise Cactus, reads a note from the company, ‘stands as a symbol of resilience, thriving in harsh conditions and representing a willingness to grow and evolve. It represents a metaphorical new sunrise for Paul Smith in Los Angeles, a new beginning for the brand, and a renovated presence of Gufram in the United States.’

‘Because of its geographical position, the buildings’ reflections, and the weather, Los Angeles has a particular light – this is something that always struck me,’ says Gufram CEO, Charley Vezza. ‘The colours, which completely represent the distinctive style of Paul Smith, perfectly reflect the city’s nuances and its unique lifestyle. Indeed, Los Angeles has a freedom that no other city in the world has.’

Gufram's Sunrise Cactus by Paul Smith is available in a limited edition of 169 pieces. 

Available via paulsmith.com

gufram.it

Founded just a year apart – in 1970 and 1971 respectively – few brands are so synonymous with British style as Paul Smith and Mulberry, whose first collaborative collection is released on 4 September 2023 and combines Smith’s colourful joie de vivre with Mulberry’s classic silhouettes and dedication to craft.

First previewed at Smith’s show during Paris Fashion Week Men’s A/W 2023 – in a collection the designer said was inspired by the modernist movement, particularly in the fields of architecture and design – the limited-edition ten-piece capsule collection riffs on Mulberry’s classic ‘Antony’ bag, a compact messenger style that features the brand’s signature ‘Postman’s Lock’ fastening.

First look: Mulberry x Paul Smith 

Here, in a variety of vivid colours that draw inspiration from Smith’s ’Signature Stripe’ motif – a 40-colour stripe used across his collections – the ‘Antony’ bag is introduced in two new iterations, the ‘Antony Clip’, a miniature crossbody bag, and the ’Antony Tote’, alongside versions of the original style. Smith says that the collection is divided into two ‘stories’ – the first, heavy-grain leather in classic black with ‘Signature Stripe’ webbing straps, the second in smooth colour-blocked calf’s leather. The latter features the new ‘Shadow Stripe’ motif, here created by embossing the leather.

‘You could say our brands grew up and came of age together. I think that’s at least partly why we share such a similar approach to creativity and craft – that and our Britishness,’ says Smith of the collaboration. ‘Working together to ensure the collection was created in the UK was something we knew we wanted to do from the beginning, and the results speak for themselves.’

There is a sustainable element to the collection, too, in line with both Mulberry’s ‘Made to Last’ ethos and Smith’s ‘Path to Sustainability’ manifesto. Each piece from the collection was created in Mulberry’s Somerset factories, which have been carbon-neutral since 2019, using carbon-neutral leather that has been a requirement for all Mulberry bags since 2022. All leather in the collaboration is sourced from Gold-standard tanneries, certified by the Leather Working Group.

‘We’re delighted to be collaborating with Paul Smith on a collection that celebrates our shared values of creativity, craft and British heritage,’ adds Thierry Andretta, Mulberry’s CEO. ‘Reflecting our “Made to Last” ethos and longstanding commitment to manufacturing in the UK, we are proud that every piece in the collection will be made at one of our two carbon-neutral Somerset factories.’

Mulberry x Paul Smith launches 4 September 2023 in selected stores and online. 

paulsmith.com
www.mulberry.com

In partnership with De Padova

A constantly curious, cross-disciplinary designer with a widescreen outlook, Sir Paul Smith possesses a creative vision that looks beyond the world of fashion. ‘You can find inspiration in everything’, as Paul Smith likes to say. Teaming Italian furniture brand De Padova’s understanding of refined luxury with Paul Smith’s unique and multi-hued aesthetic, a new project creates a virtuous, cross-pollinating product line with style and sustainability at the fore.  

‘Paul Smith contributes to creating a coherent vision, based on emotions and dreams of which the products are the natural outcome,’ says Roberto Gavazzi, CEO of Boffi|De Padova. ‘He joins a pantheon of De Padova designers that includes some of the great masters of Italian and international design: Vico Magistretti, Naoto Fukasawa, Jasper Morrison and Patricia Urquiola.’

The Paul Smith + De Padova ‘Everyday Life’ collection includes sofas and poufs, armchairs and coffee tables, as well as leather accessories for the living room. A new  modular sofa can be assembled and arranged in a number of shapes and configurations to create a friendly, convivial atmosphere. The collection also includes an outdoor furniture range that bears the same distinctive silhouette and focus on high-performing features, in this case outdoor fabrics and iroko wood frames. 

‘The contemporary home now includes the outdoors. The garden is the new living room!’ says Paul Smith. ‘We have expanded and perfected the “Everyday Life” collection to adapt it to the different needs of modern living [whether in] an airy city apartment or a cottage by the sea.’  

As with all-things Paul Smith, craftsmanship, colour and character are at the heart of the designs. Comfort and ergonomics are just as essential. Marrying form with function and touches of personality, the collection has clean lines infused with unexpected details, such as the discreet contrast stitching on the cushions, acknowledging Smith’s fashion heritage. 

The backs of the upholstered pieces in the collection feature tiny, multicoloured straps that allude to Smith’s ‘Signature Stripe’, while the visible wooden joints in the furniture’s construction pay homage to the Japanese tradition of cabinet-making, long championed by the designer. 

The collection’s colours range from classic and vibrant hues to earthy tones that together form a considered and sophisticated palette. 

Care has also been taken to realise a product that guarantees environmental sustainability and responsibility at every stage of the process. Low-impact materials of natural origin, such as hemp, kapok and recycled feathers, feature on frames that can be completely disassembled. 

Reflecting the intrinsic values of both Paul Smith and De Padova, the ‘Everyday Life’ collection offers a new vision of contemporary home life. Everyday living with a Paul Smith twist, and a touch of De Padova luxury.  

depadova.com

British designer Paul Smith was gifted a racing bike for his 11th birthday; as a teenager he sought to go pro, competing in races and time trials as part of Nottingham Beeston Road Club until a crash put an end to his ambitions. Despite this – and a shift to fashion after the success of his initial Nottingham boutique, which opened in the 1970s – cycling has remained a prescient inspiration throughout his career at the London-based eponymous label (he even released a Thames & Hudson-published book on the subject, Paul Smith’s Cycling Scrapbook, in 2016).

Smith’s relationship with Rapha – a cycling brand founded by Simon Mottram in 2004 that aims to ‘to inspire the world to live life by bike’ – is also longstanding. Smith has been friends with Mottram for over two decades and collaborated on several collections. One of the earliest collaborations was a co-branded cycling jersey in 2007, when the first leg of the Tour de France was held in London. ‘Paul and I are really just two long-time fans of cycling – something that brought us together from the earliest days of our friendship. We share decades of excitement about racing and veneration of cycling heroes,’ explains Mottram. 

Paul Smith and Rapha cycling collection

The new collection – which is available now – draws inspiration from this longtime friendship, celebrating the way that cycling ‘brings people together’. ‘This collaboration was our opportunity to bring [our] shared history to life and to tell the stories of so many other friendships founded in cycling from around the world,’ says Mottram, while an accompanying campaign features pairs of riders – whether neighbours, brothers or friends – who found ‘closeness through cycling’.

‘Simon has this almost encyclopaedic knowledge of cycling and the history of cycling, so his expertise and enthusiasm for the sport has been a real inspiration to me,’ adds Smith. ‘And he’s generous with it, which is something I’ve always been an admirer of: people who are so excited by ideas that they can’t wait to share it.’

The vintage cycling jersey provides much of the impetus of the new collection, which finds its roots in what Smith calls ‘the golden era of jersey design’, ‘when designs began to become bolder, brighter, and more detailed, and thus, more collectable’, as the brand describes. Cycling jerseys come with rabbit prints and feature Smith’s signature colourful stripes, while an array of accessories sits alongside – from powerweave cycling shoes to sleek face-shielding wraparound sunglasses.

‘Collaborating with Rapha and Simon once again has been such an honour – working with someone with shared ideals is always a great pleasure,’ says Smith. ‘We were both brimming with ideas for this latest collection, and I hope it shines with our love of the sport as well as our fascination with vintage cycling jerseys.’

paulsmith.com 
rapha.cc 

Sir Paul Smith brings his inimitable sense of colour to one of the prime progenitors of colour, Swiss manufacturer Caran d'Ache. This is the fourth collaboration between the British designer and the 100-year-old maker of fine art materials and writing instruments, and this time the focus is on the 849 ballpoint pen.

Paul Smith Caran d’Ache 849 duotone ballpoint pen

The collection consists of six examples of the 849, each finished in a new duotone colour combination, drawn from the seemingly bottomless well of Smith’s palette. The 849 series is an acknowledged design classic, a hexagonal barrelled pen with separate clip, available as pencil, fountain pen, rollerball and ballpoint.

It’s the latter that has been given the Paul Smith treatment, with each of the new duotone designs referencing the designer’s famous stripes, stitching and other strongly contrasting colourways. It moves the collaboration on from the original set of ten 849 pens in a hitherto unseen colour palette.

The new colourways are carried over to the metal cases, which also bear the gold-plated signature of ‘Caran d’Ache+Paul Smith’, while the Swiss-made pens have lacquered bodies and a chromed pusher and clip. 

Sir Paul Smith’s passion for colour and contrast informs everything that comes out of his atelier, as well as his diverse collaborations, ranging from a classic Mini to a conceptual Mini, to work for Boffi, Braun and Porter.

The designer is a longstanding fan of Caran d’Ache and has used the company’s products for many years. The latest collection showcases the Swiss company’s admirable ability to express its colour capabilities in a variety of ways. 

 The fourth edition of Caran d’Ache + Paul Smith is available now from Caran d’Ache and Paul Smith points of sale and stores as well as at carandache.com 

Paul Smith spent some of his best days during the grimmest periods of the Covid lockdown in his famously untidy office in an otherwise empty building, working his way through 200,000 images from Pablo Picasso’s personal collection in the archives of Musée Picasso in Paris. He had been asked to art direct the museum’s exhibition marking the 50th anniversary of the artist’s death, in 1973. ‘The brief was a carte blanche to show Picasso in a new light,’ says Smith. ‘It was meant to be a way to open the museum to a new generation and a new public. Not being an expert, on Picasso, I could say, “I really like that”, without being burdened by all its history.’ Cécile Debray, who took over as the museum’s director only after Smith had started work, is using the exhibition to put the collection, mostly in storage since 2015, back on permanent show.

With an unerring eye for picking out the unexpected, as well as the beautiful, Smith found decorated plates, copies of Vogue that Picasso had scrawled over, Robert Doisneau’s photographs of the master from the 1950s, posters and preparatory sketches, as well as a selection of unquestionable masterpieces. There were, he says, a few surprises about the size and scale of some of his selections when he saw them in the flesh. Working with the museum’s curators to underpin the selection with a broadly chronological structure, and scholarly authority, Smith’s witty and inventive ideas about display create a memorable exhibition, one which he has clearly enjoyed putting together enormously.

A wall of bicycle handlebars gazes back at Picasso’s bull’s head fabricated from a bicycle saddle and a rusty steel tube. There is a cascade of striped Breton jerseys hanging from the ceiling of the museum’s attic above a photograph of the artist wearing one.

Picasso’s tribute to Manet’s Le Déjeuner sur l'herbe has a green lawn on the floor. Thelonius Monk’s improvisational jazz haunts the 1950s room. There are carpets on the floor in some rooms and rough paint stripes on the walls of another. The 17th-century baroque splendour of the museum’s home, the Hôtel Salé, with its honey-coloured stone, has never looked better.

Debray is enthusiastic about the colours that Smith has used. ‘It gives the museum the feeling of being a private house again. We will try and keep that flavour for the future. A white cube can seem so intimidating.’

Does the most famous artist of the 20th century really need an introduction to a new generation? Debray, on the basis of her reading of Twitter, thinks that he certainly does. She doesn’t use the word misogyny but she does mention Me Too. ‘When I look at social media, I feel a sort of rejection for him from a generation’. It’s the reason she has introduced the work of living artists into the exhibition, most of them women, to contextualise and respond to Picasso’s work. There are some telling juxtapositions, Dora Maar’s surrealistic photograph introduces the war room. Mickalene Thomas, who quotes Guernica in her Black Lives Matter work is on the opposite wall. Louise Bourgeois shares another room with Picasso’s biomorphic work. Obi Okigbo's painting addresses fetish objects from Picasso’s collection.

What did Smith learn about Picasso from the experience? ‘I would never compare myself, but he was always curious, always wanting to learn’.

'Picasso Celebration: The Collection in a New Light!', on view at the Musée Picasso in Paris until 27 August 2023. museepicassoparis.fr; paulsmith.com

The much-anticipated October 2022 Legends Issue of Wallpaper*, guest-edited by Giorgio Armani, Kelly Wearstler and culinary royalty Margot & Fergus Henderson, deserved a true celebration, and there’s no one better with whom to crack open the St John Crémant than the Hendersons themselves. They joined Paul Smith and Wallpaper* acting editor-in-chief Bill Prince for an evening of charm and carefully curated nourishment. 

Tucked behind a wall on the perimeters of Boundary Gardens in Shoreditch is Rochelle School, a repurposed series of buildings housing a cluster of studios, production companies and, the star of last night’s show, Rochelle Canteen.

Set in a former bike shed, the canteen is delightful; the team are familiar – Margot and Fergus’ daughter Frances is among the staff – and the decor (consisting in part of a tablecloth of mosaiced aprons from St John’s kitchens by Arrange Whatever Pieces Come Your Way and rustic arrangements of flowers from Linley Farm) is fuss-free. Water jugs, clearly handmade (the most telling sign being the imprints of fingers that are pressed into their curved necks), are sprinkled along the table, an endearing detail in the family-style table setting. 

A close-knit bunch of Rochelle Canteen regulars arrives through a security-guarded arch, an in-the-know energy spreading throughout the gardens of this renovated Victorian school. Close friends of the Hendersons, musician James Righton and actor Keira Knightley slip into the space, a gleeful Margot meeting them with hugs, and drinks soon following. Knightley settles down next to photographer Johnnie Shand Kydd and his dog – a welcome addition in the leafy courtyard. Co-founder of Rochelle Canteen Melanie Arnold sits on a bench alongside Fergus, readily welcoming the stream of smiles, and writer Caroline Roux – who interviewed Margot and Fergus Henderson, as well as their friends and family as part of their Wallpaper* guest editor takeover – appears in the courtyard with open arms. 

Awash with warmth and easy conversation, the evening primarily feels like a reunion of old friends. Wallpaper* managing director Malcolm Young wafts the air and relays that he and Margot go way back; and when asked about Rochelle Canteen’s dinner guests, Martin Cohen, event producer at 6UP, smiles and says, ‘I’ve known them all for years, they’re like family.’

Brown shrimp, cabbage and chervil salad, and tomato, monk’s beard and bottarga adorned the tables, served family-style and enhancing the intimate feel. Wine from St John, the restaurant chain co-founded by Fergus Henderson and Trevor Gulliver filled glasses, the finishing touch on an evening of relaxed luxury.

INFORMATION

arnoldandhenderson.com

stjohnrestaurant.com

Today, it has been announced that Giorgio Armani – a perennial icon of Italian style – has passed away aged 91 in Milan. Here, we look back to a career-spanning conversation he had with British designer Paul Smith in 2022. Taken from the October 2022 issue of Wallpaper* – which Mr Armani guest edited – the pair talked shop, discussing everything from role models and career highs to their strong Italian and British roots which have endured over their several decades in business. Together, it paints a portrait of a designer with an indomitable creative spirit, which continued until the end.

In an industry that often moves at whim with breathtaking speed, Giorgio Armani has shown remarkable staying power. Expertly steering his eponymous brand for more than four decades, he has taken his vision of soft elegance from fashion to interiors and hospitality, built a multi-billion euro empire and, with Armani/Silos, created one of Milan’s foremost cultural institutions. As guest editor of Wallpaper’s October 2022 issue, Mr Armani invites fellow fashion legend Sir Paul Smith for a wide-ranging conversation about role models, design signatures, the virtue of consistency, the tide of technology, and much more.

When Giorgio Armani met Paul Smith…

Giorgio Armani: Paul, you started with your little shop in Nottingham, I started as a window dresser and then a buyer at La Rinascente [in Milan]. How did your experience on the shop floor shape your vision as a designer? For me, it was an invaluable asset, a call to realism that I still treasure.

Paul Smith: There’s nothing better than hearing what the customers are requesting, commenting on or criticising, and it does keep your feet on the ground – but then, over the years, I learned that you’ve got to get the balance right between attention-seeking clothes that you use for a catwalk or for publicity, and the clothes that pay the rent.

I was wondering whether there was an important role model or mentor in your earlier life who guided your decisions, and helped you establish yourself as who you are today.

GA: My real mentor, supporter and sidekick in the business has been Sergio Galeotti, my business partner and the one with whom I started the company. Apart from talent, Sergio saw things in me that I didn’t. He pushed me to believe in my ideas no matter what, and helped in every way. Without him, there would be no Giorgio Armani enterprise. I owe him a lot and even though he passed away almost 40 years ago, he is still a presence in the house. His spirit and energy persist everywhere.

And are there any designers you admire and look up to? I have always had a fondness for Coco Chanel and for Yves Saint Laurent. What about you?

PS: My wife Pauline and I were lucky to visit some of the great couture shows when we were first starting out, which was just an amazing experience and has definitely informed my steadfast focus on maintaining the quality of everything I make. We were also fortunate enough to get to know Yves and Pierre Bergé. The last Le Smoking that Yves made was for Pauline. She still has it in her wardrobe and seeing it gives me goosebumps.

I wanted to be a racing cyclist until I had a bad accident when I was 17. What would you have been if not a designer?

GA: I wanted to be a medical doctor when I was young, but that was not really my calling. I would probably have been a movie director if I was not a fashion designer. I love the idea of creating a whole ambiance, dressing the people that inhabit it and getting to create the story, too. And I’ve always been a big cinema buff.

PS: You have had some amazing success in film dressing, from American Gigolo to The Wolf of Wall Street. Do you consider film an important tool for showcasing your clothing, and do you enjoy the process? I have found it can be a huge amount of work!

GA: Film can indeed be a huge amount of work. What I enjoy the most about working in cinema is the fact that I can dress characters, and that means matching clothing and personality in many ways. I love to explore the symbolic and psychological power of clothing. In some movies, like American Gigolo, I had the opportunity to showcase my style to the wider public. In other cases, I worked with period costumes, making them my own way. Cinema is more than a tool to showcase style. It has the power to build an aura around the name of a designer, and that has been a huge asset to the Armani world.

In a world of bigger and bigger fashion conglomerates, you keep your independence just as much as I do. What are the pluses and the minuses of being your own boss?

PS: For me, independence is the freedom of action, and the fact that you can steer your own destiny. I love the joy of spontaneity. Obviously, the difficulty is that you have to wear many hats: the designer, the businessman, the salesperson. And although you have a good team around you, ultimately the final decision lies with you.

GA: From my perspective, there is an essential British quirk to your vision. Whereas I see myself as quintessentially Italian in my appreciation of soft elegance – do you agree?

PS: I’ve been enjoying your career and your clothes since the early 1970s, and you’ve always had that same aesthetic, which is to do with quality, freedom of movement, softness. And your colour palette has always stayed more or less the same, with gentle taupes, creams and putty colours. Mine, being a British designer, has what we call ‘tongue in cheek’ – classic with a twist and quite playful. Which in many countries is very positively received, and in other countries is not always understood.

GA: We both started with menswear, and an idea of womenswear evolved out of that. For me, the straightforwardness and efficiency of the masculine wardrobe brought into feminine territory produced a long wave. Was it the same for you?

PS: For me, dressing men is totally natural and inhabits the majority of my business. But we have a relatively small collection for women, which does well. What is interesting with fashion for women is that it’s far more vulnerable, because trends change so often. Brands go out of favour and so it’s more of a challenging market.

GA: Another similarity between the two of us is our fondness for patterns. Your way with stripes, in particular, strikes me – could you tell me more about this?

PS: I’ve always used printed textiles and patterns. It goes back to the fact that my clothes are about putting simplicity with the unexpected. They are not really attention-seeking, overly designed. When it comes to shirts, or especially dresses, the pattern is where I can make a statement. As a visual person who loves the arts and travelling, I find printed textiles come quite naturally. With regard to stripes, as we both know, striped fabric for men, especially in shirting, has been with us for many, many years. It’s only when my business started to develop a little that I had the opportunity to design more stripes. Initially, it was just navy blue and white stripes or burgundy and white stripes. My famous stripe came completely by chance, and has stuck with me until today.

Are there any particular influences that you find yourself often returning to? I have a large business in Japan, and have found the country a huge source of influence since I first started visiting in the 1980s. Am I correct in thinking that your womenswear design often takes inspiration from Asia, and your trips to the continent?

GA: You are correct. I am really fascinated by other cultures, by other ways to perceive dress and decoration, in particular, by those from the Far East. It came over the years with my travels and many other experiences. What attracts me to the aesthetics of China and Japan is the soulful simplicity, the elegance and the spareness. I like that everything about China and Japan is so quiet, so calm, so pure, but so full of power.

What is fashion for you? Is it more about running a business, or dressing people?

PS: I think fashion is a difficult word to describe, in the same way style is a difficult word, too. Style for me can be to do with posture or good manners, as well as how you look. If you can put people in nice clothes, it really does make them feel special, authoritative, sexy and strong. Clothes definitely do a job, but we can see that so much in the industry now is to do with promotion and superficiality.

I consider that you have found the balance between the need to be commercial and also in tune with changing trends. Is there a particular inspiration or design that you return to that reflects this realism in your collections?

GA: This might sound rather obvious, but I constantly return to the softly tailored jacket. In both menswear and womenswear, it shows an ability to endlessly evolve while being consistent with my design values. A jacket is an everyday item, a very pragmatic piece that nonetheless shows the immense power of clothing. It gives presence, stature and dignity. And it is one piece: you attain more with less. Someone who has achieved the same balance, for me, is Robert Wilson, the stage director. Bob’s way with spareness in stage design, light, costumes is incredibly inspiring in this sense, as it is endlessly repeated in his work but never in the same way. I also deeply admire Jean Michel-Frank for his way with shapes and materials, the sense of elegance his work emanates. It is something I always look at for Armani Casa.

I think we are both realists, we like to dress the daily lives of people, avoiding unnecessary flights of fancy. In this respect, how do you see creativity?

PS: I completely agree with you, and I think what is called the king’s new clothes, or the reliance on press or modern communication, is alien to us. We want our business to keep up with the way people communicate, but the foundation of our collections has stayed true since the beginning.

Collaborations with other design companies have been a large part of my life as a creative, and I gain a lot of insight working with teams in other disciplines. Do you enjoy collaborations and have you done any that you are particularly happy about?

GA: Life, and work for that matter, is an endless learning curve, so I make sure to absorb everything I can from those I come in contact with. I have learned a lot by collaborating with stage directors and movie directors to create atmosphere, to suggest feelings. And, of course, I collaborate actively with the factories that produce my items, in order to make everything of the best quality possible. This said, co-branding is not really my cup of tea. Emporio Armani did a collaboration with CP Company, and it was very exciting as both brands are iconic and of a certain Italian style. But this was a one-off. Collaborations today are way too much of a marketing drive, and lack the authenticity I crave.

PS: The world of fashion can be very flippant and changeable, but I think the joy of both of our brands is that we have stuck to our guns, do you agree?

GA: I do! Consistency to me is a virtue, not least because it allows one to grow and change within a definite frame. That, for me, is way more effective than flipping ideas every six months. There is something reassuring and even strengthening to sticking to one’s guns.

I have a feeling that fashion somehow is morphing with entertainment. Which on one side is exciting, on the other frightening. What is your personal take on this matter?

PS: I think the main changes I’ve noticed are the reliance on technology for promotion, the fact that many companies are now run by stylists and not trained designers, and the over-reliance on a logo. The actual skill of cutting shape, and the quality of construction, have fallen by the wayside with many brands.

Is there one particular aspect of this change that you find disturbing or difficult? And something that you think has changed for the better?

GA: The current interest in fashiontainment [the merging of fashion and entertainment] has completely diverted the interest of designers away from the materiality of clothing. Everybody wants to be a showman, and making clothes is the least interesting part in this sense. This is unbearable for me. We are here to provide modern and interesting clothing that people will actually wear, and to change people’s lives and perceptions with that. Aren’t we? A change for the better, I have to say, is the collective drive towards a more responsible industry. We have only one planet, and have to take care of that, at every level, from design to consumption.

I design furniture, you create special objects in collaboration with renowned furniture brands. What do you like about dressing the space that one inhabits?

PS: I think we’ve witnessed how much interior design has changed over the years. If you are really immersed in it, which we both are, then there is great fun in the texture or pattern of a carpet, or the colour of a wall, and it just becomes a blank canvas to play with.

GA: At one point, rather naturally, I moved from clothing to interiors. From dressing the body to dressing the space a body inhabits. That led to hotels, then a restaurant, flowers and so on. Gradually, I created a lifestyle; you’ve done so, too. Do you recall how that happened?

PS: The way you have built your lifestyle projects has been admirable, amazing, and on a far bigger scale than mine. Mine’s more of an interest and has a small commercial side to it. We build your confidence in the way we like to have things, see things and behave, and that leads to additional products that reflect our spirit.

One of the strengths of your business is how solid its foundations are. You’re not just independent in a business sense, but also in how you operate – your logistics are as strong as your design. Was that very conscious? Or like me, did it come as a result of developing very organically and gradually without this expectation of rapid growth and the perils that it brings?

GA: I started as a designer, with a vision that I thought was relevant for the mid-1970s. The first ten years of that enterprise were wonderful: I focused on creativity, Sergio took care of every aspect of the business, protecting me. When Sergio passed away in 1985, replacing him with someone else was out of the question. It was a hard moment, which I overcame by deciding that I would take care of everything – there was no other way to protect what we had and make it grow. I became a designer-entrepreneur, which is how I label myself today. So, to answer your question, I learned all along the way, from mistakes and from successes. As a proverbial control freak, I worked hard on making everything come together, from design to logistics. The best part is that, to this day, I am still learning.

What is your view on failure? Are there any big mistakes you learned a lot from? One of my biggest failures was the Japanese-inspired collection of 1981: a huge success with the press and a total commercial wreck. I learned how to balance creativity and business savvy.

PS: I had this conversation very recently when I was talking about my Foundation. I was asked about significant failures in my history, and I struggled to recall anything. I think it’s because I’m a very positive person and any mishaps or stumbling blocks I’ve experienced, I’ve always tried to concentrate on the things I’ve learnt from them. That’s not to say I haven’t had a few disasters in my time, I think my memory sometimes magically erases them, which is very generous!

GA: I love being in the sea on my yacht, I have seen pictures of you with a lovely Mini. Are you more of a car or a boat person?

PS: I am definitely more of a walking, bicycle or car person. Although I love being by the sea, I don’t have a great desire to be on the sea. I enjoy fresh air, country walks. I love living in town because I enjoy the excitement of exhibitions, people, cuisines from different countries.

I am a collector of many things, from artworks to bicycles. I am motivated mostly by the things I love and that bring me joy. Do you consider yourself a collector of anything? Is there any item you own which you particularly treasure?

GA: Collecting is something that is quite far from me, unless houses fall in the category. My biggest indulgence, in fact, is owning a place in the cities I love, so that I can feel at home wherever I go. For the rest, I do not own much, but there are objects, just like you said, which are to me objects of affection, like Uri, the life-sized gorilla that stands in my living room in Milan, or little things that I collect in my travels. My office, though, is quite spare and monastic, complete with my signature incense scent.

PS: Over the years, the rabbit has become a lucky charm of sorts for me; my wife started this years ago by presenting me with a rabbit charm she had found before every show – do you have any symbology in your life or mascots which you return to?

GA: The navy blue T-shirt I usually wear at the end of my shows is definitely my lucky charm, and an expression of my fondness for pragmatism and uniform dressing. It started, just like in your case, by pure chance and it stuck. I might wear a white shirt and necktie for the couture presentations, but I do really feel empowered by that humble blue T-shirt. It is as straightforward as I am.

PS: I admire how you have created a seemingly loyal group of celebrity fans and friends who support you at your events and shows. Did this come naturally to you, and how do you think it has impacted your life and your business?

GA: Working with celebrities and movie stars came rather naturally to me, and early in my career. It all started in the 1980s when the actors of the new Hollywood, looking for a new style for the red carpet, came to me. That created a bond between me and them and this bond has grown over the years, creating real friendships and extending quite widely in show business. That also translated into a huge communication tool: one based on authenticity and stardom.

Are you happy, Paul? You seem to be a happy person.

PS: I am blessed with a beautiful wife, whom I’ve been with for many, many years, since the age of 21. I’m a very optimistic person, I think we’re both the same star sign of Cancer, I don’t know whether that means that we are more positive and happier than other people, but I certainly enjoy every day and I never forget the expression ‘every day is a new beginning’.

I love Italy and have a home in Tuscany which I spend – at least – the summer in. It is the place I feel most relaxed. You are a true Italian to me and epitomise the relaxed glamour we associate with Italy. Where are you happiest, and do you spend enough time there?

GA: I am more relaxed and free, as I told you, when I’m close to sea. Water is really my element so I love being in my house in Pantelleria or in my house in Antigua. The landscapes are dramatically different, but the energy of the sea is just the same. I spend as much time as possible in both places. Over the years, I’ve learned that taking time for yourself is important and that one has to care about personal rest. Most weekends, I’m at my villa in Broni, near where I was born: a beautiful mansion with a park and lots of animals, including a giraffe. I am sure you would love it: it is definitely Italian, with just a dash of magic.

Is there a place where you would live if you were not living in London? Does London define you and your personality in any way? I would not live anywhere else than Milan.

PS: I love London. I love that it’s a melting pot of so many different cultures. In the UK, lots of people choose to escape the city at the weekend and go to the countryside to unwind and be in nature. Whereas I love my weekends in London, visiting galleries, spending time working in my shops and meeting the people who pay my bills. I do enjoy visiting new cities, and the holidays that I spend in my home in Tuscany, but I always love coming back to London.

I am very impressed by your garden in Milan. Is that something you take particular pride in?

GA: My garden makes me proud, and I have gardens in most of my properties. I do not have a favourite spot, because the whole garden is a favourite spot: a place of peace and retreat in the midst of the city. How can one beat that? I love feeling in touch with nature: it gives me serenity and room for thought.

Paul, how do you cope with technology? Do you like social media? I do a little to keep au courant, but they are not really my thing: I find them too fast and too fickle.

PS: My dad was an amateur photographer and I inherited his love of taking photos. Before I had an iPhone I would take a camera everywhere I went, and the photos I took were an endless source of inspiration for me and for my team. Now I take all those photos on my iPhone and some of them are used on my own personal Instagram. Having the whole catalogue in my pocket is a brilliant reference point. I am surrounded by a passionate and young team who keep me informed. I’m very aware of how important it is to keep up, and the speed at which everything happens now is pretty mindblowing and unlike anything I have experienced in my career.

How has your relationship with privacy evolved over your career? Are you happy with the fame that came with your success, or would you prefer to have remained anonymous?

GA: This is a very hard question Paul, which I think calls for no simple answer. By nature, I am a private person, so probably I would have stayed anonymous, but fame is also something that makes me happy, because it allows me to connect with an audience well outside of fashion, and it allows me to say things and be heard. I have been reflecting on this a lot in the long pandemic winters: fame has made me a role model to many, and this is a responsibility I willingly take on. I think of fame as something that pushes one to do better, not as the badge of total visibility.

PS: I’m sure you’ve done your fair share of interviews throughout your career. What’s a question that you’ve rarely or never been asked that you’d like to answer?

GA: I have been asked all kinds of questions, and dutifully answered all of them. Sometimes I think I would have loved to be on the other side, and be the one who asks questions – it is a much easier position in a way. Which, in fact, is what has made this dialogue with you so enjoyable for me.

Paul, would you ever retire? When I was younger I thought that, by my eighties, I would be on permanent vacation, but the work is so exciting, so energising, I really cannot let it go. Working keeps me alert and, relatively, young. What about you?

PS: I know people find it difficult to believe, but I really do honestly enjoy what I do every day and wouldn’t change it for anything. I find what is often referred to as ‘relaxing’ as a very strange experience and my mind is just constantly on my work. If you enjoy what you do, then the notion of a vacation or of retirement is very alien. I feel no shame in saying I would happily just keep on doing it for as long as my mind and body allow me to.

GA: Finally, Paul, would you be able to define yourself? I see you as a bright, positive person.

PS: A down-to-earth boutique owner!

The same question to you, how would you define yourself? And how would the people whose opinions you value most describe you?

GA: I would describe myself as a very focused person who looks icy from the outside, but has flames burning inside. In other words, I am a passionate individual hidden behind a self-possessed persona. People I love and trust would describe me exactly like that.

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A version of this article appears in the October 2022 issue of Wallpaper*, available in print, on the Wallpaper* app on Apple iOS, and to subscribers of Apple News +. Subscribe to Wallpaper* today!

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Sir Paul Smith’s association with Mini goes way back. His most recent collaboration – a conceptual version of the new electric Mini, the Mini Strip – was revealed in 2021 and immediately hailed for its combination of minimal trim and enduring materials. Back in 1998, the Mini Paul Smith Edition, a limited edition of 1,800 vehicles, added pinstripe chic to the original Sir Alec Issigonis-designed Mini. 

Now the designer has collaborated once more with Oliver Heilmer, head of Mini Design, to create the Mini Recharged, an upcycled original 1998 Mini that’s been given the electrification treatment.

Revealed at Salone Del Mobile 2022, the Mini Recharged hasn’t just been rewired from scratch; it also incorporates colours, materials, and trim that reflect a truly sustainable approach. Smith describes the car as a combination of ‘quality, sustainability and functionality,’ and it’s easy to be seduced by this stripped-back version of one of the most enduring designs of all time. 

Stabs of bright colour are a perennial Smith signature, and the Mini Recharge doesn’t disappoint, with orange seatbelts, a yellow dashboard shelf, and a lime-green battery box in the boot. The Recharged’s bodywork is finished in a bright blue colour originally inspired by one of the designer’s favourite shirts.

There are still plenty of classic Minis on the roads and the cars retain a strong cult following. Launched in 1959 as the ultimate compact car for a family of modest means at a time of the first oil shock of the modern era after the Suez Crisis, it was economical and cheap to run (if not to actually build).

Engineer Issigonis used a pioneering engine layout to maximise space; 80 per cent of the car’s volume was devoted to passengers and luggage. At 3.05m long, a classic Mini is barely bigger than a contemporary Smart car, yet could seat five. 

Swapping out the original engine for electric motors and a battery pack was a substantial operation.

New Mini partner Recharged Heritage Limited, a small company based in Lancashire, was responsible for the engineering, installing a 72-kilowatt electric motor to turn the car into a zero-emissions machine. 

Changes are subtle but striking. ‘When you move into your old aunt's flat, out of respect you don't change everything, but you do some modernising,’ says Smith, and his interior changes reflect this ethos.

For a start, there’s a distinct absence of interior trim – just as with the Mini Strip – helping reduce weight and creating a uniquely utilitarian finish. The bare metal footwells are covered with recycled rubber floor mats, while the instrument panel is just as stark as Mini’s original, with the round centre-mounted speedo complemented by a smartphone mounting. The gear selector, switch gear, column stalks and windscreen winders are all machined aluminium; and the steering wheel itself is removable, just like on a racing car.  

‘Ideas are never the problem, you can find them everywhere,’ says Smith. ‘The challenge is to implement them. Here it worked. A dream has come true… We have made a 1990s car totally relevant for today.’

While last year’s Mini Strip was a step too far for mass production, the bespoke nature of the Recharged project and the ongoing partnership with Recharged Heritage Limited hints at this being more than an elegant one-off.

Deft use of colour has long defined the work of British fashion designer Paul Smith, who this month unites with Boffi | DePadova on a collaborative collection – debuting at Salone del Mobile 2022 – comprising artisanal sofas, armchairs, poufs, coffee tables, blankets, benches and trays.

Earthy shades of ecru and brick red meet bolder swathes of peacock green and deep midnight blue across the sustainably minded collaboration, alongside vivid flashes of lime green – a colour distinct to Paul Smith, and the collection’s ‘hero hue’. 

Beginning with the designer’s guiding phrase, ‘you can find inspiration in everything’, these colours enliven an otherwise clean-lined collection titled ‘Everyday Life’, which melds comfortable, understated design with luxury materials and playful details – much like Smith’s own clothing collections. ‘An homage to the value of craftsmanship,’ say Paul Smith and Boffi | DePadova of the collaboration.

The fabrics include sustainable and low-impact hemp, kapok (naturally organic, hypoallergenic and insulating) and recycled feathers, while dark oak, leather and marble provide the collection’s structure. ‘The juxtaposition of wood and stone references Paul’s love of the unexpected,’ say the accompanying notes. 

Elsewhere, references to the history of Smith’s eponymous label appear throughout: ‘Punto Cavallo’ stitches are a nod to the designer’s tailoring heritage, while contrast zig-zag and cross-stitching in various hues recall the Paul Smith ‘Signature Stripe’ (the recognisable design is finding renewed life in recent months, appearing in the brand’s advertising campaigns and across dedicated mens- and womenswear collections).

‘I have total and absolute respect for DePadova and its history, to which many design heroes of mine have contributed,’ says Smith. ‘I admire the uncompromising quality and functional aesthetics, so my touch is tucked in subtle and not so obvious details that present classic in a new light.’

Roberto Gavazzi, Boffi | DePadova CEO, adds: ‘Paul Smith is unique in the fashion world, with his distinctive style that has been able to stand out over time. We admire the way the colours reveal themselves in his creations with a surprise effect, and this is the spirit we wanted to bring to the collection.’

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Paul Smith began his first boutique in a 3x3-metre cube in Nottingham in 1970; half a century on, he is perhaps Britain’s most well-known menswear designer, with outposts around the world (indeed, he is a rare fashion household name, knighted in 2000). It feels apt, then, that he is passing this wisdom down to a new generation of designers with a collaboration and mentorship programme &PaulSmith, of which London-born designer Priya Ahluwalia – who founded her eponymous label Ahluwalia on graduation from Westminster University in 2018 – is the first recipient. 

‘I had the pleasure of being introduced to Priya through a mutual friend and our shared approach to design was obvious from our first meeting. Her maverick spirit reminded me of myself when I was just starting out,’ says Smith of the collaboration, which will see him team up with Ahluwalia on a 14-piece capsule collection of clothing and accessories (it is the first time he has collaborated with a ready-to-wear designer). Promising ‘a meeting of two distinct creative minds’, the aim of &PaulSmith is a ‘fresh and authentic’ approach to collaboration, built on a genuine connection between two generations of designers – a relationship which in this case has been growing over several seasons. 

‘This collaboration is so special to me as it was born out of friendship and curiosity. A while back, Paul so kindly invited me to come and meet him and learn about how he works, and I was blown away by him and his treasure trove of an office,’ says Ahluwalia, who gleaned inspiration for the collection from objects discovered over several visits to Paul Smith HQ – from vintage cycling jerseys and Studio One record covers to some of the designer’s decades-old fabrics and checks. In the pieces, these references are melded with Ahluwalia’s own signatures, which often feature visible seams and panelling, as well as inspirations from her Nigerian and Indian heritage (here, Ahluwalia says this emerges in colours and prints drawn from photographs taken in the two countries).

The clothing itself has a relaxed, collage-like approach: a colourful jumper is stitched with ‘A Brand New Day’ and edged with racing jersey-style stripes, loose-leg trousers come in contrasting checks, a patchwork sweatsuit is dotted with badge-like prints (including a circular ‘Ahluwalia Paul Smith’ logo written in the former’s signature typeface). Sustainability, which is central to both designers’ work, is also a focus with organic cotton, biodegradable viscose, and repurposed surplus jersey making up the collection. 

‘While our styles may appear different at first glance, we’re coming at it from the same place: a real conviction that clothes should be a source of joy,’ says Smith. ‘This collaborative collection is proof of that.’

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Paul Smith's S/S 2022 menswear collection has a nostalgic nod. Here, the London-based designer has riffed on the sun-drenched tones he associates with his holiday home in Lucca, Tuscany - which in the wake of the Covid-19 pandemic, he was desirous to visit. And the collection also alludes to Smith's life-long love of cycling – which remains, despite the crash that famously shifted his focus from pro riding to fashion – pairing relaxed tailoring with lightweight vests in ebullient stripes and floral prints. 

Paul Smith and Porter: the right stripes

Smith's early career, and the connections he made expanding his global label, had particular focus. The designer – who has a huge presence in Japan – and has visited the country countless times, looked back to one of his earliest trips to Tokyo, where he made longtime connections with the family behind iconic accessories label Porter, which launched in 1962. ‘The son of the Porter Yoshida family was one my best friends and one of the reasons why I did well in Japan in the early days,’ Smith told Wallpaper* on a call regarding his S/S 2022 collection. 

Now, Smith has translated his affection for Porter into fabric form, with an uplifting capsule collection of bags and accessories, that unite Smith's signature stripes with Porter's idiosyncratic nylon twill fabric. ‘It was lovely making the decision to put our mixed up stripes onto the brand’s bags,’ Smith says of the irregular patterns that swathe duffel bags, roomy multi-pocket shoppers and wallets, that draw on the tones of vintage tent fabrics, including khaki, mauve and navy blue.  

The collection celebrates Smith's long time love of Japanese manufacturing: each piece is created with the highest rigour in the label's home country, using nylon twill that is ultra durable. Each design will ensure you can carry the stripe-infused spirit of the country, wherever you choose to travel.

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‘It’s about that pale sun yellow of the morning going through to the bright blue sky of the afternoon,’ explains Paul Smith of the inspiration for his London label’s S/S 2022 menswear offering, The designer expressed his longing for his holiday home in Lucca, Tuscany through nostalgic numbers, like breezy tailoring and sunflower print shirting. The tones synonymous with balmy escape – the magenta hues of a tropical cocktail, the sugary pink of refreshing sorbet, and the zesty orange of sunset – turned up the heat on the catwalks, which celebrated the care-free frivolity of out-of-office ensembles, and served up a spectrum of beach-ready silhouettes for your suitcase.

The best men's beachwear for tropical escapes

Top of our paradisal packing list? Prada’s floral motif towelling jacket serves as a tactile post-swim cover-up, while the Milanese brand’s signature nylon bucket hat, imagined in mouthwatering lime, will protect you from unwanted midday rays. Co-creative directors Miuccia Prada and Raf Simons were particularly captivated by the beach for S/S 2022, with the former describing the experience of relaxing on the sea shore as ‘utopian’. At Loewe, creative director Jonathan Anderson’s evoked the bohemian decadence of Ibiza, and the energetic neons and high energy hues of the party island’s famous rave culture. The Spanish brand’s tangerine beach bag, which resembles a fabulous fishing net, sets the tone for indulgent escape.

Like Paul Smith, Hermès’ Véronique Nichanian was also keen to bask in the benefits of Vitamin D. The French maison’s menswear offering celebrated luxuriant holiday items, from relaxed shirting to Bermuda shorts, rope belts to floral intarsia knits. Most meditative is the brand’s coordinating twinset cardigan and jumper, which resembles the rich tones of a  tropical sunset or a fuschia Gin Fizz. We’ll be drinking it in all summer. 

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A version of this article is featured in the March 2022 issue of Wallpaper*, on newsstands now and available to subscribers

Mid-pandemic and post-Brexit, most of us have become far more familiar with the ins-and-outs of our postal service. Bouts at home have led to an appetite for online purchases, a new allure in Amazon Prime and the fleeting adrenaline rush of opening an anticipated parcel. It's a fitting metaphor for our times that Glenn Martens held Y/Project's A/W 2022 show at Paris Fashion Week Men's in the cavernous warehouse of a DPD depot, where delivery vans could be seen lined up, ready to roll out packages to Parisian homes, straight from the catwalk. 

Louis Vuitton's A/W 2022 show – the final chapter of men's artistic director Virgil Abloh's bildungsroman – had more of a fairytale flourish, with the label erecting a quintessential surburban street lined with sky blue ‘dream houses', with red rooftops and inviting, warmly-lit windows. Virgil Abloh's first show for the Parisian maison eight collections ago, featured a rainbow catwalk recalling The Wizard of Oz's Yellow Brick Road, a symbol of a fairytale path about to be trodden, traced by not only Abloh's footsteps, but those of his diverse collaborators. This emotive setting, which showcased Abloh's final collection for the brand, completed by Vuitton's design team after his tragic passing in November 2021, was an emotive emblem of a dream fulfilled, the final familial location of a boyhood dream, which ended with him joining one of the world's most prestigious luxury brands. And it was journey marked over eight collections by coming-of-age symbols: a bouncy castle, a build-your-own-kite kit, a paper aeroplane. 

Elsewhere, influences on the A/W 2022 menswear season in Paris were encyclopedic, including surrealism and sleaze, New Wave cinema, and chronophotography. But the city was not exempt from the complications suffered by the schedules at Pitti and in Milan, in the wake of rising Omicron infections in Europe, with the week in the French capital being marked by a quieter presence, with collections presented both physically and digitally. Still, the season saw the first Paris runway show of London designer Bianca Saunders, and welcomed womenswear shows from Paco Rabanne, Y/Project and Alaïa. Despite the circumstances, a swathe of A-listers were still in attendance - just look to the front row of Nigo's debut show for Kenzo, flanked by Pharrell Williams, Tyler, the Creator, Ye and Julia Fox. Over the week, they were treated to Rick Owen's riff on sleaze; elfin-inspired accessories; and a celebration of slouch and surrealism. And in this special report, we've collected the very best highlights from Paris Fashion Week men's A/W 2022.

Paris Fashion Week men’s A/W 2022: 9 key takeaways

1. Embrace the eclectic

There was plenty of room for personal interpretation on the A/W 2022 catwalks, as designers embraced eclectic flourishes and finishes. At Acne Studios, founder Jonny Johansson took inspiration from a cartoonish floral button, the foundation of the brand's collection, resulting in a fancy dress box of designs, like sequinned shirting and textural abstract knits, patchworked trousers and crushed velvet blazers. For Bluemarble's Anthony Alvarez – who presented his debut show on the Paris schedule – the New York-born designer, who has Fillipino, Spanish and Corsican heritage, went on a whistle top world tour, drawing inspiration from the sails of Filliipino vinta boats, and seeming to stop off at skateparks, snowboarding runs and hippy trails. Models sported a mix of bright patchwork jackets, tie-dye track tops, frilled pyjama shirts, and baggy jeans, worn with fake fur-sprouting slip-ons, pointed knitted hats and reflective sports sunglasses.

2. Make mine a large

If Milan Fashion Week Men's made a case for large-scale silhouettes, Paris pumped up their proportions. Tel Aviv-based Hed Mayner was taken by ‘capricous' silhouettes, that provide space between the wearer and clothing, the wearer and us. A fine grey chalk stripe double-breasted blazer, with voluminous slouch-shouldered proportions, was paired with a slim trouser, and a puffy, pointed-lapel tan leather coat layered with pants which would pool on the pavement. Technical ponchos offered tent-like protection. And quilted Liberty print scarves swathed the body.

3. Swat up on your cinema and surrealism

‘Going along the streets of Nottingham, a rather dark town, I was struck by this really bright Jean-Luc Goddard film poster,' explained Paul Smith, in a collection preview of the cinematic New Wave tones that inspired his A/W 2022 offering. The designer – who presented a live collection film, streamed from Paris' Chamber of Commerce – thought back to the directors that inspired him in the Sixties, referencing not just Goddard, but Fellini and François Truffaut. ‘With Goddard, you might have a shot with no colour, juxtaposed by a red balloon,' Smith said of the bold Technicolour that peppered the collection, which featured raspberry tailoring, glitch-print bowling shirts and checked outerwear. A chevron motif, seen in quilted coats and intarsia knitwear, nodded to the zig-zag floor in David Lynch's Twin Peaks, while outerwear silhouettes evoked the ‘Director's jackets' that Smith used to sell in the early Eighties. Smith even created his own Hollywood starlet print - featuring the visage of a woman tesselated across overcoats and shirting.

‘What is real today? Perfection is fabricated, imperfection is erased, illusion and displacement are the coordinates,' read the opening lines of the Loewe press release – which accompanied a collection that riffed on ‘nonsensical' silhouettes, twisted, shrunken and surrealist shapes, and dramatic reinterpretations of archetypal wardrope pieces. T-shirts and shorts protuded with hula-hoop proportions; transparent coats, seemingly made of rubber, were imagined in see-through leather, or featured an imprint of a buttock in golden paint; outerwear was punctured with metal sink strainers; t-shirts and body suits were printed with trompe l'oeil figures. The onset of the Covid-19 pandemic has certainly catalysed questions regarding reality, as many of us have hunkered down inside, spending more time online, honing our digital personalities. And at Loewe, things are not what they seem. A Flamenco bag has a bottom formed from a conch shell or is shaped into a slouchy boot. Jackets are worn as shorts, knitted roll necks are rendered impossibly impractical, with inbuilt gloves swathed in dangling streamers.

4. Elf yourself!

Admitedly, an unexpected accessory trend on the Paris catwalks was unveiled: an intriuge in elf-like footwear. At Acne Studios, this came courtesy of beaked toe fishing boot. Ditto seen at Y/Project, with the brand's signature slouched thigh-high boots finished with a gently curling toe. Hed Mayner also made a case for a gnomic buckled shoe. Yes, a literal toe-curling trend. 

5. Take note of tapestries

At the crux of Virgil Abloh's design DNA was a desire to reframe codes and symbols, bring new value to cultural, social and political signifiers, and design with a boyish charm, untampered by adulthood. For his final A/W 2022 show for Vuitton – Abloh had sought to bring new life to two paintings, The Painter's Studio (1855), by realist Gustave Courbet, and 1914's Souvenir d’Italie by surrealist Giorgio de Chirico. These were translated into rich tapestried silhouettes, like trenchcoats, cargo pants and hoodies, in an aim to cement Abloh's continued exploration of ‘originality, provenance, reference and self-reference'.

Hermès' Véronique Nichanian was also taken with the symbolism of tapestry, staging the French maison's A/W 2022 show at the Mobilier National in Paris, against a series of resplendent wall hangings. She was fascinated by the idea of giving them new character, by models assimilating with their backdrop, becoming ‘part of the landscape in which the collection’s energy unfurls, and in which figures and clothing come into their own.' Against these tapestries, Nichanian created dandyish silhouettes, more rooted in a modern elegance and authenticity than dandyish figures of the past, typified by Beau Brummell or defined by Baudelaire, sporting trenchcoats in crispy technical canvas, printed silkscreen printed blousons, compact cotton serge cargo pants and driving jackets in Porosus crocodile.

6. Collaboration is key

In his exploration of archetypal silhouettes, Y/Project's Glenn Martens has reinterpreted the classic designs of a host of brands, including Ugg, Fila and Canada Goose. On the A/W 2022 runway, the brand unveiled its latest collaboration with Jean Paul Gaultier. The latter has enlisted Martens to explore his famed silhouettes, a profject which has already seen Sacai's Chitose Abe take up the roving seasonal creative director role. Martens transformed the cult trompe-l’œil prints from Gaultier's S/S 1996 collection (the original body illusion pieces pop-up on 1st Dibs and Vestiaire Collective), which have become cult items in Gen-Z's obsession with Nineties fashion, into figurative nipple and bare-chest revealing vests, dresses and tailoring.  

Dior also added another hotly-hyped accessory to its collaborative cannon, in its team up with Birkenstock. The latter German footwear brand, which in recent years has celebrated sellout ‘1774' collaborations with luxury brands like Jil Sander, Valentino and Proenza Schouler, unveiled new styles on Dior's catwalk, riffing on the signature Boston and Tokio mule. Dior's haute grey and black styles in suede and felt – which complemented the comfort-focused hues in its A/W 2022 collection – have a robust rubber upper, industrial hardware buckle and feature delicate floral embroidery. After all, Monsieur Dior himself was famously green-fingered.

7. A lightbulb moment

Paint tin bags at Louis Vuitton; totes made from framed still life paintings at Casablanca; sink basket details at Loewe: everyday items were used to transform A/W 2022's silhouettes. Rick Owens had a lightbult moment, looking to the illuminated installations of American minimalist artist Dan Flavin, creating antler-like demonic headpieces, which also nodded to the helmets of Ancient Egyptian gods, and illuminated the designer's take on male sleaze. Owen's idiosyncratically dark collection, which looked to the underbelly of the male pysche, featured torso-exposing industrial chanmail vests, ballooning padded gilets that turned into face-concealing balaclavas, strong Pagoda-shouldered jackets and glam rock platform boots. The look was heavy and hardcore, riffing on draped Couture shapes and sportswear, a decadent dive into Owen's apocalyptic aesthetic. 

Our physical lives have become inextricably linked to the digital, and it's a point that JW Anderson illuminated at Loewe, with silhouettes that shone on the runway with LED lighting. Body suits, wool coats and trenchcoats twinkled with fairy lights, the sleeves of double-breasted coats were illuminated with a warm glow, and conch shell accessories shone with light. Illumination was projected from the body, like a phone constantly lighting up with notifcations from a pocket.

Homme Plissé Issey Miyake was also inspired by illimunation for autumn. With a collection film, directed by Kyotaro Hayashi, the Japanese brand looked at the structure of a tent as its inspiration. One element of the offering, ‘Lantern', presented pastel-drawn printed silhouettes inspired by a bulb glowing from inside a tent, featuring ponchos and relaxed suiting with abstract patterns in orange and ocean blue.

8. Wave ‘hello' to womenswear

9. And...relax!

There was a sublime softness to silhouettes on the A/W 2022 runway, with brands taking some of that working from home hygge into the upcoming season. At Dior, Kim Jones looked to the lineage of Monsieur Dior – whose birthday on 21 January was the same date as the brand's show – bringing a sublime insouciance to its founder's famed 1947 Bar Jacket silhouette, imagined in seemingly chalk-etched tweeds, Prince of Wales check and even stone-wash denim. Jones also celebrated the maison's most loved hue – trianon grey – and teamed pared-back tailoring with slouchy trackpants in grey marl, chocolate and snowy white. The brand's Birkenstock collaborated cemented the collection's laid-back, luxurious lilt. 

Jil Sander also used the word ‘comfort' to describe its A/W 2022 offering, a luxurious, fabrication-focused collection, featuring enveloping suede and Japanese wool coats which secured around the waist with silk scarves, or swathed the body in mohair leopard print and striped tweed. Lucie and Lukie Meier employed artisanal flourishes, accenting tailoring with scarves and soft vests in floral crochet velvet and bringing flashes of bold colour in orange and turqouise.

The high fever of fixed-gear fanaticism and steel-frame fetishism may be long passed but more and more of us are still taking to two wheels. Cities across the world have closed roads to cars and installed cycle lanes, making bicycling increasingly safe and accessible. We are still of the opinion, though, that if you jump on a saddle, you should look like you mean it and dress for the occasion in the best cycling gear.

Cycling gear should have a hi-vis, form-fitting appeal all of its own and our suggested kit shifts up a gear visually from the much favoured but monotonous – and, safety-wise counter-intuitive – all black approach. Our new favourite cycling tops include the eye-popping ‘Spectrum’ jersey from Universal Colours, made entirely from post-consumer plastic bottles while still offering all the stretchy breathability you need on a steep uphill climb or determined whizz to the office (should you still do that).

Get on your bike with the best cycling gear and accessories

Paul Smith – who created a tandem bike with Mercian for Wallpaper Handmade X – was of course a committed cyclist long before it was frightfully au courant, and his range of cycling gear includes a natty number (pictured top) made in recycled polyester, and featuring a dazzling band of buzzing colour. From Japanese brand Pedaled, we’ve hit on the ‘Marai’ women’s jersey, ideal for when the temperature drops and made in Bluesign-approved sustainable materials. And we’re big fans of the punchy graphics and technical but sustainable fabrics of Melbourne-based Maap.

Our suggested sunglasses are from Oakley, designed for riders at this year’s Tokyo Olympics. Shoe-wise, we’re going for Fizik’s ‘Vento Infinito Carbon 2’ with its pleasingly elegant micro-adjustable fit system. And our helmet of choice is ‘Valegro WGII’ from cult-favourite Kask. Saddle up and be safe.

When Oliver Heilmer, head of the Mini design studio in Munich, called Paul Smith last spring to talk about working together on a new project, neither of them knew quite what they were letting themselves in for. Heilmer had loved Smith’s stripey version of the original Alec Issigonis-designed Mini, one of three commissions (Kate Moss tattooed hers with spider’s webs, while David Bowie went for an all-over mirror finish) unveiled at London’s Design Museum to celebrate the Mini’s 40th birthday in 1999. So he asked Smith to come up with something similar for the new electric Mini.

The call came as a welcome distraction for Smith, who was alone in his Covent Garden HQ while his team worked from home. But he wanted to make more of a mark on the car than just putting his signature on the bodywork. When Heilmer came to London to talk to Smith about the latter’s involvement, he quickly realised that this collaboration wasn’t going to be limited to a colour scheme.

‘We started with the idea of how to make a more emotionally satisfying car,’ explains Heilmer. That meant staying focused on the essential qualities of the Mini, an unusual blend of frugality with charisma. ‘The Mini can be seen differently in different contexts. It can be surprisingly expensive in China because of the taxes, while in Europe it’s almost affordable enough for students, but our aim is to keep the identity of our car classless everywhere. We thought, let’s do as much as we can, while keeping it drivable. A lot of design work for the Mini is about common sense: keep it as small as possible, and please keep the round headlights.’

Smith agrees: ‘It’s very much about respecting the origins of the car.’ The starting point for Smith was a memory he had of seeing a car body before it had been painted and fitted with all the trim. ‘I didn’t want to change the shape, but talked to the team about how to show the steel with all its imperfections and the traces of the manufacturing process. It’s like the suit I’ve just had made. I asked the tailor to put the sleeve head in by hand. That way you get little dimples in the cloth, and the little imperfections that I love. Tadao Ando’s concrete architecture, with its perfect little circular indentations, has the same quality.’

Smith went to Munich to meet Heilmer’s team. They had taken a brand new car from the production line in Oxford before it reached the paint booths, shipped it to Germany and stripped it back to raw metal. The steel body panels were zinc-galvanised, but otherwise left as they were from the press. They took out the original dashboard, the trim on the inside of the door panels, the covers on the airbags, the door opening mechanisms, the instruments, the dashboard controls, the carpets and the steering wheel.

Seeing the car in that state gave Smith the idea for a radical new aesthetic for Mini. ‘A bit of my dad came out,’ says Smith. ‘He used to drive a Morris Oxford, and had a workshop. He did everything himself, rather than get someone in to do it for him.’ That’s why the wheel arches on Smith’s Mini are held in place by visible bolts, rather than the invisible internal fixings on a production model.

‘What was wonderful was how much the team embraced the project. They were brave to allow me to do so much to a car. I hope they like my lateral way of thinking, even the naivety of my rather childlike approach,’ says Smith.

For most of last year, a stream of samples went back and forth between London and Munich. ‘You need to feel the textiles and the metals when you are working remotely,’ says Heilmer. Instead of covering the inside of the door panels, Smith suggested a layer of mesh, so that you can see the steel inside. Exposed cables run up the middle of the car; and the driver’s airbag is visible behind a grille in the middle of the cork-lined steering wheel. The side airbags are held in visible cylinders clipped in place over the doors.

‘It’s a way of valuing things that are not usually valued. It’s the principle of making good and getting by,’ says Smith, who left a little cluster of hand-painted stripes on the edge of the door panel, as a memory of his previous project for Mini. There is also a dock for an iPhone on the dashboard, rather than a fixed satnav and music system, and a charging cap identified by a little doodle hand-drawn by Smith.

Tagged ‘Mini Strip’, the resulting car is a one-off – drivable but not exactly legal. It’s Smith’s love letter to the aesthetics of make-do-and-mend engineering. It’s a celebration of the essentially imperfect qualities of materials that the modern auto industry, focused on quality control, has spent billions on finding ways to hide under layers of glossy perfection.

INFORMATION

‘Mini Strip’ will be on view from 13–17 August 2021 at Paul Smith, 9 Albemarle Street, London W1, and from 7–12 September 2021 at IAA Mobility, Munich

paulsmith.com

mini.com

Expanding her line of less-is-more silky separates and slip dresses that evoke Nineties minimalism, Refine founder Anina Heé is launching Refine Jersey. Rooted in considered luxury, Refine’s made-in-Europe, direct-to-consumer, never-marked-down separates are building a cult and loyal following. We meet her to learn how and why.

Anina Heé’s parent’s textile business in Switzerland gave her an early education in the entrepreneurial side of the business before starting her fashion career as an assistant to Carine Roitfeld in New York. She went on to become an editor at Net-a-Porter in London, coordinating between the buying and editorial teams and gaining first hand-knowledge that would guide the journey of her brand. 

Wallpaper*: What can we expect from the new Refine Jersey pieces? 

Anina Heé: One of the fabrics I am most proud of is a new jersey crêpe – we used it for the Gwyn style. It's a nice link to our silks as our printed designs are made of a luxurious crêpe marocain fabric. The crêpe finish is mostly used and associated with silks but you can achieve it also with other yarns such as cotton. We found a beautiful version of this fabric that is 100 per cent cotton – it feels like silk but it stretches like jersey. Another one of my favorites is the pointelle fabric used for our Perry top. The top is named after the Spring 1993 Perry Ellis collection by Marc Jacobs (one of my all-time favorite collections) where this fabric was heavily used and layered throughout. I used to wear tops like this in the 90s and feel very nostalgic about it. I wanted to create a grown-up version of these tops. It wasn't easy to source the fabric but we finally found an Italian supplier who had an amazing archive of beautiful pointelle fabrics. 

W*: Where are these new pieces made and where do you source the yarn? 

AH: For Jersey, we sourced the majority of the fabrics in Italy where we also source for our silk pieces. My family has worked with Italian mills and dyers for generations so it's nice to nurture these relationships. Portugal plays a huge role in the production of jersey fabrics and that's where we found our GOTS certified fabrics. The production of our pieces is located in Portugal near Porto. 

W*: The price point is very reasonable. How do you keep such high quality pieces affordable? 

AH: We are keeping our margins very lean. We are a DTC [direct to consumer] business which allows us flexibility. We also don't do seasonal sales which means we always offer our customers a fair price and we don't need to raise the margin to accommodate markdowns. Our price reflects the true cost of the item including a markup that covers what we need to run our business. We are also very transparent about our pricing (not offering "free shipping" for example). This part requires educating the customer as they have become so used to this kind of promotion. Unfortunately, they forget that retailers and brands who offer that can only do so because the cost is covered in the product margin. We want our customers to know what they are paying for. 

W*: You use only 100 per cent natural fibres. How do you achieve the stretch and comfort in these pieces? 

AH: For woven styles, there’s often a mix of artificial fibres to allow the garments to stretch. If the thread itself isn't elastic, it comes down to the specific weaving technique of the fabric to achieve the stretch. If you limit yourself to only using natural fibres, it's a challenge to find fabrics that offer the same level of comfort when worn. I am excited that after a long and thorough research we found the perfect materials without compromising our standards. 

W*: What’s the secret to creating desirability in something so pared back?

AH: It all comes down to quality and fit. It is complex to create the perfect basic because every small detail is exposed, and you can't distract the eye with extravagance. It took us almost two years to develop this collection of wovens. I also feel like by leaning heavily on the designs of the 90s we are hitting that nerve - a desire for simple pieces that don't compromise on sensuality. Pared back minimalist designs in fashion have been very graphic, often oversized and masculine over the last few years. Refine is focusing more on the female form and embracing soft lines in our designs which feels contrary to what has been dominating recently. Maybe that's why it feels new and exciting even though it is so simple.

INFORMATION

refine-store.com

A common style trick over the last 12 months has been to throw a tailored blazer over a tracksuit for a impromptu Zoom meeting, or to pop a smart layer over loungewear when nipping outside for essentials. Now that there's more opportunity to embrace elegant dressing codes, an elevating women's jacket should be the top item on your shopping list. Here we present the brands for bolstering your smarter spring mood, whether you're easing back into office life or simply sitting en plein air.

Lanvin: Hit the right buttons

Lockdown has made us more aware of life's smaller details. Lanvin's elegant double-breasted jacket accentuates the body with eye-catching mother-and-daughter motif buttons.

Paul Smith: Hot under the collar

Months at home put you in a more relaxed state of mind? Layer up in a sleek textured shirt, as demonstrated by Paul Smith's luxurious leather design, which also features a handy front pocket.

Max Mara: Coffee-break colours

The chicest way to celebrate your first coffee outdoors? Complement your cappuccino with your clothing, courtesy of Max Mara's smart, organically hued blazer. This silhouettes scores office-worthy style points, even if you're only sitting in the park.

Petar Petrov: In good sport

If you're unsure you'll ever separate yourself from sports-inspired comfort, Petar Petrov has the ease-fuelled answer. The Viennese brand's sleeveless leather anorak speaks of luxurious yet laid-back style.

Paco Rabanne: All dressed up

Glam has been perilously low on our style radar. Keen to inject some going-out inspired chic into your wardrobe? We suggest sporting Paco Rabanne's double-breasted coat as a mini dress.

Louis Vuitton: Buckle up

Bring some belted bite to your blazer with Louis Vuitton's waist-cinching buckled jacket. This silhouette has a futuristic, deconstructed silhouette, a fitting way to embrace today's new world.

Chanel: Stay in touch

Jacket, £1,950; shirt, £1,450; trousers, £950, all by Fendi. Photography: Alexandre Guirkinger. Fashion: Benoit Martinego. Originally featured in the May 2021 issue of Wallpaper* (W*265)

With social distancing limiting our sense of touch, tactile fabrications take on a new importance. Chanel's bouclé jacket revels in the maison's signature fabric, accentuated with beaded embellishments.

Boss: The palette cleanser

Spring calls for palette-cleansing colours. Draw attention in optic white silhouettes, like Boss' minimalist duster coat. The simplest way to avoid grass stains? Carry a picnic blanket when embarking on a sit-down sortie.

Gucci: An exotic escape

If an exotic escape feels like something of a pipe dream, let tropical prints and motifs take your fancy instead. For spring, Gucci's casual button-up jacket shows an affnity for the eye-catching pattern of snake skin.

Hermès: Make it minimal

Look to Hermès for an incredibly elevated take on 1990s minimalism. Sometimes pared-back silhouettes have the most power, as demonstrated by this zip-up leather coat, which is conceived in the finest of fabrications.

Peter Do: Utilitarian attention

For the more adventurous of dressers, consider the apron your new take on outerwear. Peter Do's version is sumptuous in its tactile finish, and should be worn to reveal a flash of flesh.

Bottega Veneta: Craft flair

A hand-crafted finish will draw attention, whether you're sitting outside on a terrace or sauntering through a city street. Bottega Veneta's denim jacket features a delicately crocheted hooded detail, fusing sportswear with sophistication. 

INFORMATION

A version of this article first appeared in the April 2021 issue of Wallpaper* (W*264) – available to download here

It’s no secret that a largely digital-only fashion week is a tricky event to master. Fashion shows function on suspense and anticipation, the expectation of an audience, the first foot on a runway, the inaugural beat of a show soundtrack, the force of the catwalk finale. It’s difficult to recreate this suspense through a computer screen. But for Paris Fashion Week A/W 2021, designers living in a city operating through a lockdown and strict curfew pushed on.

They even took advantage of the French capital’s deserted streets, presenting collections and trends for 2021, that celebrated the spirit of the City of Light and the spectacle of the fashion show, with both pared-back, reserved dressing and exuberant, out-out style.

Like many of us, Chanel's Virginie Viard was feeling the urge to hit the tiles and dance all night with abandon. For the Parisian maison's A/W 2021 offering, the brand's merry troupe of models strode through the deserted streets of Paris, before arriving at legendary Saint-Germain-des-Prés nightclub Castel, which opened in 1961, and was beloved by Pierre Bergé, Serge Gainsbourg and Salvador Dalí. Here, the models shed glittering bouclé coats and puffer jackets at the cloakroom and strutted through salons, sporting glittering mini dresses, transparent skirts and androgynous tweed suits. 

There was also an après-ski sensibility, seen in padded camelia-motif jumpsuits, Chanel ‘CC' logo dungarees and fluffy moonboots. Instagram users were strongly inclined towards the label's evening-meets-off-piste chic, and Chanel’s collection reached more than 246 million users, the widest audience of Paris Fashion Week, according to visual marketing software company Dash Hudson.

Miu Miu was also keen for a ski trip, holding its A/W 2021 show on the snow-topped mountains of Italy's Cortina d'Ampezzo, instead of its usual AMO-designed show space at Paris’ Palais d’Iena. Models braved the elements in colourful crochet knits and balaclavas, glossy padded jumpsuits, fluffy ski boots and bejewelled dresses. Ski, but with a side of subversive sleek. 

For her debut at Chloé, Uruguay-born New York-based designer Gabriela Hearst celebrated Paris, home city of the brand. Inspired by the location of Chloé founder Gabrielle Aghion's first salon shows, the brand's A/W 2021 film featured models softly striding from Brasserie Lipp (still a firm fashion week favourite) into softly lit cobbled streets. There was a 1960s fluidity to the collection, reflecting the easy elegance of Hearst's own label. Think striped knitted dresses, patchwork coats in scalloped leather, fluid outdoorsy ponchos and a new eco-aware take on the brand's signature ‘Edith’ bag. Hearst is committed to sustainability, and her debut featured recycled fabrics, from cashmere to silks, alongside 50 secondhand ‘Edith’ bags sourced on Ebay and customised with scraps of fabric. 

AMI's Alexandre Mattiussi wanted not only to celebrate the spirit of Paris, but also the joy of a physical fashion show. His A/W 2021 film, Le Défilé, shot by Spanish filmmaker Alvaro Colom, traced excited models travelling to appear on the catwalk, before strolling in a 1990s-inspired spectacle. 'I wanted to pay tribute to the shows I used to watch from that era on Fashion TV,' Mattiussi explained. ‘Shows with an amazing mood and energy, people screaming!' The brand's collection also paid tribute to 1990s minimalism, with its elevated offering of camel coats, shearling jackets, fringed dresses and and optic tailoring. ‘Pieces that are elegant, sexy and chic,' Mattiussi said. ‘Good clothes for real people.'

Coperni also deemed it essential for the show to go on, and the label's founders Sébastien Meyer and Arnaud Vaillant presented an IRL drive-thru event at the Great Hall of the Accord Arena in Bercy, reached by 70 guests in a fleet of electric cars. Here too was a sense of 1990s decadence, with a collection that featured nighttime looks including pastel-hued transparent dresses, slouchy suiting, knee-high boots and scuba leggings

The beauty of a digital-first fashion week is its democratic nature. People from all over the world can view a brand's show through a screen, at the same time as an industry insider. However, this apparent unity can mask isolation, with viewers tending to access the experience in solitude. For Hermès' A/W 2021 show, Nadège Vanhee-Cybulski stated: ‘Let us attempt to be creative together – albeit from a distance.' This translated into a film directed by Sébastien Lifshitz, encompassing a trio of shows across continents and time zones. It featured an opening performance in New York, choreographed by Madeline Hollander, a catwalk show in Paris, and wrapped up with a final dance performance in Shanghai, choreographed by Gu Jiani.

For Vanhee-Cybulski, movement was key, and her collection was focused on a joyful emergence into post-pandemic existence. ‘It is urgent now to live again, to venture forth into the unknown, to gain a new lease of life,' she said. Pieces acted as high-luxury hybrids, with smart denim suiting, suits cut like parkas, and ponchos with inbuilt scarves. ‘Classifications disappear into the play of fabrics and pleats,' she added.

For the New York element of Hermès' film, Vanhee-Cybulski was inspired by the physicality of women walking in New York. The notion of walking was integral to a number of designers for A/W 2021, who found solace, inspiration and vigour in exploring on foot. ‘I have the best ideas when I jog or walk,' said Akris' Albert Kriemler. The creative director is famous for collaborating with artists and architects, from Imi Knoebel to Geta Brătescu, but for A/W 2021 the brand's Swiss home town of St Gallen was his muse. In a film directed by Anton Corbijn, with whom Akris also teamed up last season, models strode the town’s snow-topped outer streets in grayscale, before gathering inside its medieval Abbey Library in Technicolour.

Reinterpreting the idea of the Akris logo, Kriemler devised topographical map prints that pinpointed the location of the brand's atelier. ‘My grandmother bought the space in 1944,' he said. He also celebrated the material heritage of the town, which was once responsible for 50 per cent of the world's embroidery. Delicate, punch-cut embroideries detailed comfort-focused, contemporary pieces, including neoprene dresses with laser-cut details, double-face cashmere coats and gauzy map-print tops created using stretch tulle.

During London’s several lockdowns, Laura and Deanna Fanning, the sister creative directors behind Kiko Kostadinov’s womenswear collection, took their daily walk around London’s Crouch End, Muswell Hill and Highgate. With the streets largely deserted, they felt a sense of reclaiming the city and its historic sites, but also noted the lack of inspiration felt when people aren’t around. ‘In big cities people become part of the landscape, it’s one of the reasons you live in them,’ they explained. Their strolls led them to Lauren Elkin’s book Flâneuse, which looks at the walking habits of women writers including Virginia Woolf and Jean Rhys, and covers Elkin’s own on-foot adventures, from Venice to Tokyo.

The Fannings were inspired by the idea of 'presenting yourself to other people', taking inspiration from the bright hues found in the street style photography of Japanese magazine Street, from the 1990s and 2000s. Bright colours sported by passers-by on Portabello Road in London inspired bold hues, while darker greys and blacks nodded to the weather of Paris. Draped, tailored and layered silhouettes featured chunky striped knitwear, trousers and jackets with panels of colourful faux fur, futuristic stud-detail trainers, and ruffled skirts. Fluid dresses and shirts with voluminous sleeves featured a retro-futuristic 'radius-dot' print inspired by the Polish Op artist Wojciech Fangor. ‘The print references an idea in Flâneuse, of a cartographer drawing a circle on a map and walking around the area within it,' they explained. ‘The clothes are about showing yourself off, not to please men, but for your own pleasure.'

Showing off is not something that's resonated in recent months, but it's clear that as normalcy beckons, so does our desire to dress up. ‘For me it's about having a positive, joyful approach to luxury,' said Schiaparelli creative director Daniel Rosenberry, who in just two years has brought a contemporary humour, playfulness and sense of luxury to the Parisian couture house. ‘It's about heightening the fantasy.' And what a fantasy A/W 2021 was: think classic silhouettes like poplin shirts, trench coats and denim jumpsuits peppered with hammered gold bijoux buttons evoking the 'eye' and 'lock' surrealist motifs of the house, alongside bags and tweed jackets with 3D 'booby' details and second-skin boots with huge flatform heels. ‘We're taking under-designed silhouettes and embellishing them in an intellectual way,' Rosenberry said. ‘I love the perversity of it all'.

Elsewhere, Paco Rabanne's Julien Dossena referred to his A/W 2021 offering as an ‘affirmation of decadence'. In an uplifting film, smiling women soared through the air to Bryan Ferry's Slave to Love, in souped-up 1970s and 1940s shapes, from frill-necked dresses to wide-legged suiting, embellished in swathes of chainmail, rhinestones and tulle. ‘Looks layered with ornamentation transmit resilience to ravishing effect,' read the brand's press release.

‘This collection is an ode to individuality, freedom and change,’ said Lucie and Luke Meier of Jil Sander’s A/W 2021 offering. The collection amped up ostentation, featuring silk dresses with retro interiors prints, slips with delicate lingerie details, shirts with bold floral embroidery, soft capes with fringed sleeves, and necklaces formed from oversized strings of pearls.

Acne Studios’ Jonny Johansson was also inspired by voluminous shapes and bold prints, creating pieces for emerging from isolation that are subtly different from the clothing worn before it. Black and white hues nodded to bridal and funeral ceremonies, missed out on in the last year. Fluid dresses had striking floral prints, coats cocooned the body like dressing gowns, and accessories felt protective, including chunky ponyskin boots, XL chain necklaces and warped handbags

Elsewhere, Issey Miyake's A/W 2021 offering was exuberantly innovative. The label looked to the tones of nature, from shadows to sea shells, debuting futuristic clothing in a film directed by Mikiya Takimoto. Its ‘Cliff' pieces featured garments that appeared to ripple across the body in a series of pleated and non-pleated yarns, including long skirts and unlined trenchcoats. ‘Silk Shade' designs featured abstract prints of flowers glowing in moonlight, created using a traditional hogushigasuri dyeing technique and swathed across fluid side-tie dresses. Concentric pleated ‘Monochrome Planet' designs had circular cut-out forms that bought new dimensions to the body.

A/W 2021 also allowed brands the opportunity to refine their output and drill down into their signatures. For Paul Smith, this meant revisting the subcultural silhouettes that have been synonymous with his five-decade creative tenure. As with the brand's menswear offering, shown in January, the designer looked to mod and grunge shapes, with Madness-inspired ankle-skimming suiting in two-tone fabrics, colourful striped knitwear and mackintoshes in blown-up floral prints from the label's archive. There was a relaxed elegance to the offering, which featured blazers paired with knitted trousers, fit-and-flare dresses in stretchy paisely print jersey and silk pyjamas layered with pea coats. ‘I think when winter comes, people will want to put a cool suit on, or a shearling jacket,' Smith explained. ‘After the start of the year in sweats and then flopping into summer, people will need de-flopping!'

Marine Serre also focused on the essence of her label, one synonymous with half-crescent motifs, upcycled fabrics and a fiercely apocalyptic vision of the future. She presented her 'Core' collection through a series of video vignettes online, featuring Serre fans carrying out mundane tasks from their homes in the city or the country, sporting spliced denim and leather, skirts formed from patches of picnic blanket and scarf swatches, and tattoo-print dresses.

Copenhagen-based Cecilie Bahnsen took time to hone her ethereal and intricately crafted pieces. Designs had a whole-wardrobe aspect, incorporating knitwear, cardigans and quilted trenchcoats, alongside her signature cloud-like dresses, imagined with bow details, voluminous sleeves and cut-outs and in overtly tactile fabrics. ‘The collection is so focused on touch,' Bahnsen explained. ‘Giving people a sense of tactility even when there is distance. The feeling you get putting clothing on is really luxury for us.'

Designers were also keen to reflect the reality of life, which in the past 12 months has called for an existence we never thought possible. For Dior's Maria Grazia Chiuri, this meant delving into the disturbing narratives of fairytales, and journeying to the Palace of Versailles, with a film of sinister and uncanny connotations (think nude bodysuit-clad dancers cavorting around spikes and writhing in the woods under moonlight). On the runway in the Hall of Mirrors, models took on changing feminine identities, in body-cinching hooded Bar jackets and mini skirts à la Red Riding Hood, laser-cut leather pinafore dresses and shirts, and pleated evening gowns. Leopard print and plaids allowed models to move between seductive and conservative, playing with their identities, with angular sunglasses and Oblique-print foulard headscarves.

Rick Owens riffed between rage and resplendence, his women's collection an evolution of January's ‘Gethsemane' menswear offering. The show, presented on Venice Lido, where Owens has spent much of the last year (his factory is a two-hour drive away, in Concordia), featured power-shouldered silhouettes that nodded to both sportswear and haute couture. Puffer jackets trailed like capes, body-hugging sequin gowns had voluminous asymmetric sleeves, trailing ribbed knitwear wrapped around the body, and thong swimsuits functioned as ‘self-contained and sealed body coverings'. Owens saw his powerful shapes as a response to fear and anxiety, and a parody of physical male aggression, transforming female forms into ‘architectural bulldozers'.

At Loewe and his own eponymous label, Jonathan Anderson has led the creative charge in terms of finding imaginative alternatives to the runway show. His ‘Show in the News' collection was an evolution of his ‘Show in a Box’ and ‘Show on the Wall’ concepts. The invitation featured a time capsule-inspired metal tin and, inside it, a newspaper emblazoned with the headline ‘The Loewe Show Has Been Cancelled’. ‘I thought it was nice to put a literary backdrop to the collection,' said Anderson in an accompanying video about the design of the show invitation, which also featured a letter opener and an excerpt of Danielle Steele's new novel The Affair. The collection was similarly layered, rifffing on tailoring and soft boyish shapes, voluminous draped dresses and intarsia knitwear, in bold tones and with sequin, tassel, buckle and fringe details. Think suede jackets with soft shoulders, heeled boots with XL debossed clasps, gowns with graphic paillettes and oversized blazers in painterly silks.

After a month-long series of shows – spanning New York to London, and showcasing narrative films and lookbooks, printed matter and the dense reach of digital – Louis Vuitton closed Paris Fashion Week with a celebration of the runway show in its purest form. The brand's A/W 2021 offering, presented in the Denon wing of The Louvre, was resplendent with voluminous and futuristic shapes, which drew on ancient garments and 1980s silhouettes. On a global live stream, models walked to Daft Punk track ‘Around the World’, sporting architectural capes and puffball ruffled skirts, statue-and-cameo-print jackets marking a collaboration with Fornasetti, and richly embroidered A-line dresses. Boots had chunky sculptural heels, and flats resemembled bow-detail gladiator sandals. Presented in a historic setting, the show spanned both the past and present, showcasing fashion for the future – one which viewers around the world are waiting on with wide-eyed anticipation. 

The best of British and German design have come together in a partnership between Braun and Paul Smith, who have put a cheerful spin on an alarm clock, a wall clock and a watch as part of the limited edition project.

The collection, consisting of the BC02 Travel Alarm Clock, the BC17 Wall Clock and the BN0032 Classic Watch, all draw from the clean design codes of the original pieces. An uncluttered dial and curved modern typography make these pieces instantly familiar, with subtle tweaks hinting at the identity of the fashion designer at the helm. Paul Smith’s influence is visible in the reworked yellow second hand, here recast in his signature multicoloured stripe.

For Paul Smith, there is nothing new in bringing functionality into design, with clothing in the past – such as his crease-resistant wool suit, perfect for travelling in – all revealing a desire for pieces which are wearable above all else. The designer has long been a fan of Braun, expressing his admiration for Dieter Rams in his exhibition of Dieter Rams for Braun archive pieces at the 2013 opening of his Albermarle Street store. With this new collection, Smith was inspired by Ram’s 10 principles of good design, here translating the key concepts into a restrained aesthetic.

INFORMATION

paulsmith.com
braun-clocks.com

Paul Smith, Vêtements pour Homme, as Smith called his first shop, was a life-affirming injection of wit and tailoring-with-a-twist into the cheesecloth and tank-top darkness of the 1970s. He had a tiny space, just 10ft by 10ft, in Nottingham, the English city in which he grew up. Its hours were 10am to 6pm, Fridays and Saturdays only. Along with the clothes, there was an Andy Warhol print on the wall that Smith still wishes he could have afforded to buy, and a selection of antique jewellery.

Then as now, what drives Smith is the delight he takes in discovering things, and the pleasure that he takes in sharing his finds with his customers, whom he treats as friends. Sometimes the discoveries end up on sale in his shops. He rescued the Filofax from the clutches of generations of compulsive list makers, before it became a badge of shame, a totem of the toxic materialism of the 1980s. He stocked vintage books, as well as Braun calculators by Dieter Rams.

He likes to tell you about the things he has seen. He once called to ask whether I’d been to Matt’s Gallery in London, the pioneering space for installation art run by Robin Klassnik. He had just seen ‘20:50’, the 200 gallons of sump oil that Richard Wilson had used to flood the building to spectacular effect. ‘It’s the last weekend of the exhibition, you have to go right now,’ he urged.

I had another phone call from Smith soon after he had opened his first store in Japan in 1984. ‘You have got to come to Tokyo, it’s the most amazing place on earth. Come with me next week.’ Luckily for me, I said yes and saw the city through his eyes. At Narita Airport, he pointed out the bus company staff, bowing low to a disappearing coach, a courtly gesture of respect that nobody but us would see. He took me to a tiny bar on an impossible-to-Find alley in Shinjuku, where the barman served sake in unvarnished hinoki wood boxes and knew his name, and to the street full of shops near the old Tsukiji fish market, selling surrealist plates of wax spaghetti. He also took me to dinner with Rei Kawakubo, whom he ambushed with a rubber chicken.

Smith is celebrating the 50 years since he opened that first shop in Nottingham with a new book, edited by former Wallpaper* editor-in-chief Tony Chambers, that tells his story through 50 objects, salvaged from the snowdrift of stuff that covers every inch of his office in London’s Covent Garden. It’s an accumulation that has spilled over from a desk so full of things that it is no longer usable.

There are tin toy cars, piles of books and magazines, Moroccan bottles, old cameras, a mountain of cycling jerseys, and a pink bicycle. There are a lot of rabbit artworks and ornaments, too. ‘I once said in an interview that seeing one brings me good luck, and the rabbits haven’t stopped pouring in ever since,’ Smith explains. A lot of Smith’s selection is a tribute to his father, Harold, and to his wife, Pauline. ‘My father bought me the Kodak Retinette for my 11th birthday in 1957. It was the first time I’d ever thought about looking and seeing, seeing things through the little view finder which makes you look more carefully. It was the birth of being creative, without actually realising it,’ he writes.

Pauline, who taught him how to cut a pattern, introduced him to Yves Saint Laurent, and gave him an understanding of art. The book includes one of her presents for Smith, a tiny steam engine by jeweller Joel Arthur Rosenthal, its boiler exquisitely made in gold, with diamonds for coal. Also featured is a customised wine glass, a gift from Euan Uglow, one of the most distinguished British figurative painters of the 20th century, and Pauline’s tutor at the Slade School of Fine Art.

The glass reveals another aspect of the artist, and the regard that Smith has for ingenuity and skill. He recalls: ‘We went to Uglow’s studio in Battersea, and it was full of things that he had made himself. I was given a glass of wine. The base of the glass was the handle of a tap. He told me he had dropped the glass, “so I repaired it”. I was blown away.’ Skill is the thread that connects the gold locomotive with Uglow’s wine glass, and with a 22-year-old citrus-green iMac, a gift from Jony Ive. It has never been used, but Smith had put it in the window of his shop on Floral Street, London, as a deliberate contrast with the vintage fittings. (‘As the head of design at Apple, a company that had just teetered on the brink of going out of business, I was never more encouraged or alarmed,’ remembers Ive in the book’s foreword.) Ive’s father, who taught design and technology, had given his son a practical approach to design.

Likewise, Smith’s father, who kept a soldering iron and a vice at home, had also taught him to respect people who get things done for themselves. Smith’s 50 objects are a powerful celebration of touch, a quality that the digital world cannot replace. And they each tell more than one story. Smith is famously a cycling obsessive. But his fondness for a lathe-turned Campagnolo seat pillar represents not just the memory he has of putting it into his bike for the first time, it’s also a reminder of the pleasure we all take in the physical quality of things. ‘I realised that it had a ridge on it, and when I ran my nail along it, I could feel how beautifully it had been made. Not only could you see how beautiful it was, you could actually feel it, too.’

It’s not just that the Braun record player in his selection was designed by Dieter Rams, it’s also about the music – Otis Redding, The Temptations, Eric Clapton and Led Zeppelin – that has been important to him for almost as long as cycling has. And it reminds him of the Wharfdale speakers that he packed into his car and drove to Paris to provide the soundtrack for one of his earliest shows. Smith’s anniversary comes in the midst of a pandemic that has up-ended the fashion world. He is still resolutely not doing things the obvious way, still full of energy, and still irrepressibly curious.

He has shops in lots of places now, from Melrose Avenue in LA, a shocking pink architectural tribute to Luis Barragán (W*86), to Albemarle Street in London, designed by architects 6a (W*174), where Smith himself is sometimes to be found behind the till on a Saturday. He sees that personal connection as an essential part of the future: ‘When people aren’t travelling, or coming into shops, working online is helpful. But it’s not a long-term solution. Online is not about enjoying a conversation, or about discovering things.’

A version of this article originally appeared in the November 2020 Issue of Wallpaper*

INFORMATION

Paul Smith, edited by Tony Chambers, with a foreword by Jony Ive, Phaidon, £50. phaidon.com; paulsmith.com

Paul Smith joins Tony Chambers for an online talk in celebration of fifty years of his brand at 19:00 on 23 November, hosted by the V&A

First opened in 2005, the bright pink, Luis Barragán-inspired Paul Smith store on super tony, hyper affluent Melrose Avenue, Los Angeles is now more than just a retail space; it is an architectural landmark, an Insta-famous, social media icon (#pinkwall) and a key image on the contemporary California pop culturescape. No pressure then, for the team creating the city’s second Paul Smith store, located on South Broadway in the hip Downtown area.

Located down the street from the Ace Hotel, next to the 1926 Orpheum Theatre, the new, 1,345 sq ft retail space at 842 South Broadway, in a former office of the Optometric Eye Institute is taking a more measured, curatorial approach to its retail image. To celebrate the store’s opening Paul Smith has invited British artist and ceramicist John Booth to collaborate in a total visual takeover that includes graphic window displays, large-scale artworks and custom painted antique furniture.

Already a long-term fan and supporter of John Booth’s colourful work, Smith mentored John Booth back in 2007 for the Rising Talents Award at the Maison et Objet Paris interior design fair and has showcased John Booth ceramics at the Paul Smith shop at No. 9 Albemarle Street, London. For the interior of Paul Smith Downtown LA, Booth has created seven unique, large scale works to be displayed inside the store.  Multicolourful work also spills over onto exterior, architectural and industrial elements of the shop, which have been painted in typically bold shades also. To mark the occasion of the store opening, a capsule collection series of limited edition Paul Smith x John Booth accessories – consisting of a scarf and a baseball cap – will be on sale. #pinkwall now faces some serious insta-competition from #blueheatingduct.

INFORMATION

paulsmith.com

Sportmax

Established in 1969, Sportmax speaks of the vitality and liberation of the 1970s. In uenced by his trips to New York, its Italian founder Achille Maramotti envisioned the brand as the urbane, go-ahead sister of Max Mara, which he had launched from a small factory in Re io Emilia in 1951.

‘The genesis of Sportmax was taking the idea of sportswear and introducing it into daily life,’ says Maria Giulia Prezioso Maramotti, US retail director of the Max Mara fashion group and granddaughter of the founder. Achille Maramotti, alongside Cacharel and Sonia Rykiel in Paris, forged the business of ‘ready-to-wear’. But where his vision really shone was in Sportmax’s focus on style-savvy, fuss-free, mix-and-match separates that could be worn seven days a week.

The collection (first shown as a catwalk presentation in 1976) struck a chord with a generation of women newly entering the workplace. Fifty years on, the team at Sportmax pursues the same ethos, introducing new techniques, hybrid garments and innovative fabrics. Over the decades, the brand (steered by Luigi Maramotti since the 1980s) has employed creative collaborators such as Jean-Charles de Castelbajac and Guy Paulin, but never revealed ‘names’. The anonymity allowed the brand to be the centrepiece.

This spring, a 15-piece anniversary capsule collection that riffs on core styles hits stores. Pieces are finished with Sportmax’s shaded topstitching, creating a signature lightweight feel and deconstructed look. The relevance of Sportmax proves that through the wildest fluctuations in trends and societal shifts, there is poetry to be found in everyday style.

Paul Smith

Life’s mishaps have a way of opening up new pathways. If it weren’t for a calamitous accident at the age of 18, amateur road cyclist Paul Smith might have pursued his sporting dream. Instead, post-recovery, he found a community of art students at the Bell Inn pub in Nottingham, and learnt the principles of couture from his Royal College of Art-trained girlfriend (now wife) Pauline Denyer.

Opening his first store in Nottingham outshines knighthood as one of his proudest moments. It’s here that Smith, all chiselled good looks and quick wit, learnt how to make customers feel at ease in a con ned space, deploying curios collected from his travels as icebreakers to his burgeoning line of natty suits and shirts. Collecting (dominoes, stamps, cycling memorabilia, ceramics) continues to be a cherished idiosyncrasy. During the design boom of the 1980s, Smith became a national hero known for his ‘classics with a twist’, establishing a network of stores, a vibrant design language and a reputation for comfortable yet smart suits.

Combining the classy and the unexpected – perky, coloured linings, the famous stripes – the brand suggests wit, individuality and that very British quality of self-deprecation. Collaborations with the likes of Leica and Carl Hansen & Søn have boosted Smith’s taste-making clout, while his athlete’s mindset has kept the brand in the fast lane. In an era when overproduction weighs heavily, Smith’s insistence on creating quality products with a difference is an inspiration.

Margaret Howell

‘My work has always been about trying to remain true to myself; it is a consistent style with subtle changes,’ says Margaret Howell of her half-century run. Having graduated in Fine Art from London’s Goldsmiths’ College in 1969, she was  rst inspired by a pinstripe shirt found at a jumble sale. She set up a workshop in 1973, and her line of shirts caught the eye of retailer Joseph Ettedgui, who helped her open a menswear store four years later. 

At a time when style was dominated ato one end by 1970s  amboyance, and at the other by English formality, Howell excelled in meticulously detailed, ‘lived-in’ pieces. ‘I wanted to make items feel contemporary through the proportions, softness and lightness of the fabrics – linen, corduroy, tweed. People responded,’ says Howell. By the 1980s, she was creating men’s and women’s collections and had signed licensing in Japan, a venture that proved a lifeline through the turbulent decade. The brand’s success rests on Howell’s hands-on approach, and what she leaves out (loud colour, extraneous detail) as much as what she includes.

The trend-defying durability of her designs, including an unlined linen shirt jacket dating from the 1970s, and a button- through skirt based on a trench coat, are testament to Howell’s enduring, resilient vision. By introducing photography and 20th- century furniture in her store, Howell also quietly pioneered lifestyle retailing; her stores in London, Paris, Florence and Tokyo remain a lure for collectors and browsers alike. 

INFORMATION

sportmax.com
paulsmith.com
margarethowell.co.uk

Mood board: ‘New shapes, new fabrics and reworked prints,’ Smith said of his 50th anniversary collection. ‘I’ve softened British checks and houndstooth with Italian cloths and used exaggerated proportions to give it a dreamy feel.’ The designer is globally revered for his tailoring and print and for A/W 20 the suiting was light with a longer line on the jackets. Ties were replaced by high neck shirting with a zip at the side.

Best in show: The slightly flared trousers gave a nod to the 1970s when Smith began the label, working out of a small shop in Nottingham, which he started after meeting art students in the local Bell Inn pub. Speaking in 2008, he said: ‘they had an enormous effect on me – they opened up a world I did not know existed and probably the key thing was that the world was not just clothes but all aspects of creativity and this is what I tried to express.’ His collection forewent any romanticism, however, and instead looked ahead with long puffa jackets and trainers and floral-camo denim.

Sound bite: Smith has endured as a British design icon for half a century. ‘With it being my 50th anniversary, I’ve reflected on memorable moments from my own archive but reworked them in a modern and restrained way. I’ve revisited details from my past like raw edges, top-stitching and denim and brought them back!’ he said. Smith took an energetic bow as footage of his fifty years of finales played on a giant screen behind him. 

If the festive season sends you into a spiral of wardrobe stress, and you’re reluctant to cough up for another barely worn party dress, may we alert you to the talents of the tuxedo. Timeless, androgynous and a surprising antidote to all that once-worn shimmer, it’s a salute to chic, long-lasting dressing that will serve you long after all that holiday season abundance. Here we present three experts in tuxedo dressing.

Paul Smith

For the third iteration of its Tuxedo Collection, London-based tailoring aficianado Paul Smith has souped up its original classic black style with a range of hues and textures. Think two-tone suits with 1970s flair, tuxedo jackets imagined in vivacious magenta velvet with black satin lapels, sleek bib shirts and fluid pussy bow blouses in black, cream and fuchsia silk. For those keen to balance androgyny and feminine elegance, the brand has also created a waist cinching bias cut dress with a tuxedo lapel. It'll make for essential office attire too.

Catherine Quin

‘We’ve made limited edition party wear pieces based on our deadstock fabrics,’ says Catherin Quin of her eponymous brand's latest release. The London label's limited edition collection features a range of sparkling kaftans, slip dresses and pencil skirts, produced using sequin off cuts. We're also angling towards its sleek tuxedo jacket with satin lapels and chunky buttons, and a sparkling trouser suit jangling with Twenties-centric beaded fringing. Its jacket silhouette has been reinterpreted as an Italian wool blouse with a startlingly plunging neckline. ‘We want to offer our customers pieces they truly desire at this time of year,' Quin adds. Mission accomplished.

Wardrobe.NYC

For luxury essentials-focused label Wardrobe.NYC, founders Josh Goot and Christine Centenera have focused on five purist releases of minimalist urban essentials, ranging from its second sports-focused release to its fourth denim-specific collection, designed in collaboration with Levi’s. Its fifth release, ‘Tailored’, is encompassed as a sleek eight-piece collection of expertly cut eveningwear items, including a women’s merino wool double-breasted coat, slashed pencil skirt in mini or midi lengths, and a silk crepe sheath dress. For the ultimate in luxe-tux, we recommend this wool tuxedo blazer with a satin shawl lapel in off white. Clear liquids are your only drinking option.

INFORMATION

catherinequin.com
paulsmith.com
wardrobe.nyc