16th October 2020
To mark five decades of innovative British design, Paul Smith has revived and reworked key graphics from his print archive, presenting them as a collection of clothes, shoes and accessories for men and women.
Paul was among the first to introduce photographic print to menswear in the 1980s, establishing himself as a pioneer of print design. The archive graphics in this capsule collection span a period from 1988 to 2002. Perhaps the most striking is the spaghetti print, which was first seen in autumn/winter ’94.
The original spaghetti shirt was the product of Paul’s love of Japanese culture, his desire to innovate and his mischievous and surrealist eye for design. On an early visit to Tokyo in the 1980s, Paul discovered an area of the city that’s famous for producing fake plates of food to display outside restaurants. “I bought the plate of spaghetti in the 1980s and it sat in my office for many years”, he remembers. “Then I discovered photographic printing. There was a particular company in Italy that was doing this wonderful printing, so one day I photographed the spaghetti and it became this rather kitsch shirt print.”
The spaghetti print became an instant bestseller and photo print was quickly established as a signature of Paul’s work. As an entre to the spaghetti course, this apple print was first produced in Paul’s spring/summer ’90 collection.
