Paul Smith: The Most Loved Man In Fashion
I was born in London and my parents were vegetarian, and the only place in the late ’60s and early ’70s where you could buy quite dreadful, bright-orange lentils in huge volume was in Neal’s Yard. I remember escaping the large sacks of legumes, wandering down Floral Street and coming across Paul’s original London store. I don’t know why I was so seduced by this shop but I was transfixed. In the mid-’90s, Apple was in a financial crisis and close to bankruptcy. Steve Jobs returned to the company and we worked together on the iMac, which is broadly recognised as the product that saved Apple. But in 1997, before I knew Paul personally, I was walking down Floral Street and noticed he had put the translucent iMacs in the window. Paul isn’t necessarily interested in technology, but his reason for putting them there was entirely driven by his interest in the product’s design and its comment on culture. It was a tremendous affirmation for me at a time when Apple was in a particularly precarious place. Read more at Financial Times.
