I last saw Paul Smith in his Albemarle Street shop at about half past three in the afternoon on December 19. It sticks in the mind because it was the day that Christmas was cancelled and London was put under tier-4 restrictions, its essential shops closed.
“Your wife was looking for some loafer shoes and, unfortunately, we didn’t have quite the right size,” Smith reminds me as we speak by phone ahead of the opening of his new shop in south London. It is a sentence that tells you all you need to know about Sir Paul Smith. It was the last Saturday before Christmas, he was working on the shop floor assisting customers, and after another five months of the most difficult trading circumstances in living memory, he is still slightly disappointed that he did not have the right half size of shoes in stock.
However, as one of the most approachable men in fashion, who has consistently radiated a good-natured boyish enthusiasm since he opened his first shop in Nottingham in 1970, the 74-year-old is typically positive about his new store in Borough Yards. It’s a retail-led district being developed near London Bridge, housed in atmospheric restored Victorian brick railway arches. Smith’s shop on Stoney Street is the first to open, on May 27, and around 50 stores and restaurants will follow.