Sir Paul smith is a 72 year old designer who started his career in menswear fashion, although now having other collections too, being stocked/sold in over 70 countries.
Sir Paul Smith started by taking classes in tailoring and then went on to work with a Saville row tailor, Lincroft Kilgour. He then opened his first shop opened in Nottingham in 1970 selling established clothing labels with some of his own pieces and debuted his first menswear collection in Paris in 1976.
Paul Smith’s Flagship London store opened 1979 and in 1993 smith took over a workwear clothing company R.Newbold and incorporated designs into his new collection – this links to my brief by the trend of Utility and Practical wear mixing with the brand directly.
Paul smith women was created in 1993 after it was noticed his menswear was also popular with women who’d buy it to wear themselves in smaller sizes.
Due to the heavy reliance on wholesale clients that have struggled to compete with fast fashion and the rise of e-commerce have hurt sales and profits meaning Paul Smith has had to reconsider their branding and marketing strategies in order to keep the business going and compete in the industry. 80% of sales is said to be from suits alone which is a slightly more risky market as fashion is noticeably becoming more casual and more athleisure rather than formal, occasion wear. In saying that, the brand started restructuring itself in 2016; reducing its seven labels down to just two: the main catwalk collection Paul Smith, and PS by Paul Smith: (a younger, more casual/athletic menswear slightly more affordable range).
I would say from first looks Paul Smith seems to be classic with a twist, smart and quite formal, very clean tailored designs with geometric/linear influences, giving the brand a slightly more mature feel.
I’d describe his target consumer as primarily men, middle aged, slightly eccentric with an old style English feel, someone with a high income – a professional, working man who appreciates classic tailoring with in some instances, a bold twist.
Lauren Tomlin 