paul smith intro 2

BIOGRAPHY
1946 Born in Nottingham to Irene and Harold Smith, a draper and amateur photographer paul smith purse.
1961 Leaves school at 15 with no qualifications. His father finds him a job as an errand boy at a local clothing warehouse.
1963 Hospitalised for three months after crashing his racing bicycle on a training run.
Starts making displays for the clothing warehouse and takes charge of men's wear buying.
1964 Helps Janet, a friend from the local art school, to open Nottingham's first boutique by finding the premises, then becomes the manager.
1967 Leaves his parents house to live with Pauline Denyer (now his wife) a designer who teaches fashion two days a week.
1970 Opens his first shop, Paul Smith Vêtement Pour Homme paul smith holdall bags, on a back alley on Fridays and Saturdays. It is the only shop outside London to sell clothes by Kenzo and Katherine Hamnett.
After taking evening classes at the local polytechnic, Smith begins to design his own clothes, helped by Pauline, and manufactures them in local factories.
1974 Moves to a bigger shop open six days a week on the main street of Nottingham.
1976 After working as a consultant to the International Wool Secretariat, Smith shows his collection in Paris.
Buys a tiny shop on dilapidated Floral Street in London's Covent Garden, but can't afford to open it.
1979 Finally opens his first London shop.
Discovers Norman & Hill, an East London company manufacturing Filofax personal organisers, and starts to sell them.
1982 Opens a second London shop on Avery Row, off Bond Street.
1984 Signs a licensing agreement with Itochu, the Japanese trading house. By 2002, Paul Smith has 200 shops and 500 wholesale customers in Japan.
1987 Having sold the Paul Smith collection in the US on a wholesale basis for ten years, Smith opens his first shop there in New York's West Village.
1991 Opens a Japanese flagship store in the Shibuya area of Tokyo (his 60th outlet in Japan) and the first Paul Smith franchised shop in Hong Kong.
1993 Launches the R. Newbold collection inspired by the clothes made by the factory of the same name that Smith acquired in 1991 paul smith uk.
Opens his first Paris store on Boulevard Raspail.
1994 Introduces a women's wear collection and watches produced in a licensing deal with Citizen.
1995 Wins a Queen's Award for Export.
The Paul Smith True Brit exhibition is staged at the Design Museum in London before touring to Europe and Japan.
1997 Invited to join the UK government's Creative Industries Taskforce, an advisory body composed of leading figures in the creative industries.
1998 Starts to show his women's line during London Fashion Week.
Opens a new store in Westbourne House, a 19th century villa in Notting Hill, West London, renovated by the architect Sophie Hicks.
2000 Launch of Paul Smith Fragrances in a licensing agreement with Inter Parfums.
2001 Knighted in the Birthday Honours List and, on the same day, marries Pauline Denyer.
Publishes You can find inspiration in everything (and, if you can't, look again) with a polystyrene cover designed by Apple Computers' head of design paul smith multi colour stripe bags, Jonathan Ive.
2003 Great Brits, an exhibition of new British design organised by the Design Museum and British Council, is presented at Paul Smith's new Milan headquarters during the Milan Furniture Fair.
2005 A second Great Brits exhibition is presented at Paul Smith in Milan organised by the Design Museum and British Council.
Opens his first shop in Los Angeles.
2007 A third Great Brits exhibition is presented at Paul Smith in Milan organised by the Design Museum and British Council.
Selector for 25/25 - Celebrating 25 Years of Design exhibition at the Design Museum 29 March - 22 June.
2009 Exhibiting in Design Museum and Beefeater 24 present Super Contemporary, Design Museum 3 June - 4 October 2009.