Including Paul Smith in any list of Creative Leaders is something of a no-brainer. We could have selected him for his near-50-year career in fashion design alone. But actually we wanted to highlight something more – throughout his career Smith has collaborated with a wide field of creative people from all kinds of disciplines. At the time of writing, one of his London stores has just finished hosting an exhibition marking 20 years of Tom Hingston Studio, a graphic designer with whom Sir Paul has regularly collaborated and is about to show a collection of photographs selected by Smith from the Jacques Henri Lartigue Archives. And reflecting his love of all manner of creative work, a new store in Berlin features a changing selection of ephemera and artworks including gig posters, records and vintage biker jackets from Smith’s collection. The secret of his longevity? As he told Tom Hingston, looking after people and being courteous goes a long way.
