This handsome volume celebrates over forty years of the playful and trendsetting English fashion brand and retailer Paul Smith. Always in fashion, Paul Smith is not only a preeminent fashion designer but also an international retail trendsetter who perfected a classic style that exudes a sense of English tradition combined with humor, playfulness, and mischief. This marriage of sophistication and the unexpected has given birth to a style and identity that forty years and many collections later remains charming, personable, and effortlessly hip. Published in association with the Design Museum, London, which is hosting a major exhibition on Paul Smith in the fall of 2013, this volume celebrates not only the line s fashion history, collections, and collaborations but also the inspirations and obsessions that have helped to transform a small bedroom-sized shop into an innovative global forum for culture and style. Paul Smith is a full-on bright and rich visual experience, illustrated throughout with documentation of its diverse creative community and design inspirations, including Martin Parr, David Bowie, and Henry Moore, to name a few. Using hand-drawn designs, archival photographs, gorgeous original photography, and engaging essays, this colorful catalog weaves together a compelling visual tale of Paul Smith s prestigious projects and creative processes from behind-the-scenes to on the streets that built this multifaceted empire of cool.