"HELLO, my name is Paul Smith" exhibition at the Design Museum, London

To celebrate the name, the brand and the beautiful human being that is Paul Smith, Design Museum London has opened a truly wonderful exhibition to show the world of the designer in the smallest detail. His office and design studio in Covent Garden, as well as the first ever showroom he had in Paris (a hotel room) have been created to resemble the real ones and filled with Smith's own collectibles and objects.

Drawing from Paul Smith's personal archive, this exhibition charts the development of the company, from its beginnings in Nottingham through to its global presence today. It explores how Smith's unique and intuitive take on design, together with an understanding of the important roles of the designer and retailer, have laid the foundations for the company's lasting success. 

This is where is work in Covent Garden, London. 

My office is crammed full of objects - I have a desk which I have never sat at because it is totally covered in things. The only tidy surface in my office is a huge rosewood table that is always empty. The rest of my office is a madhouse - there are books, bicycles, cameras, rabbits, robots, kitsch things, letters, bills and bits and bobs all over the place. (…) The office is the equivalent of my brain. From all the things accumulated in my office, one idea will form and be the inspiration for a new collection or for the design of a new design. P.S

 This is where ideas are created.

We are famous for our print, and in particular, our stripes which are all developed in our design studio in Covent Garden. We develop our stripes by winding coloured yarn around cardboard which slowly builds up to create a stripe. In this way we can see how colours work together and how the balance of the stripe will work on a garment.

This was my first showroom.

It was a bedroom in a Paris hotel. My first collection comprised of just six shirts, two jumpers and two suits, which I laid out on a bed covered in black felt. Only one person turned up at the end of the final day but they placed an order - that was the beginning of my business.