“It’s all about everyone having their own look in this homogenized world,” Sir Paul Smith said after an energetic spring show in which David Hockney colors and insect iridescence ran riot over rock-star tailoring.
Smith insisted backstage there was “basically no coordination” in terms of color or silhouette, flailing his arms in front of the run-of-show board. Similarly, the soundtrack pinged from The Kinks to Iggy Pop to DJ Swift. Yet when the 32 models arranged themselves on a white staircase, the collection seemed more coherent than many, like some Technicolor music convention.
There was certainly a devotion to double-breasted jackets in a variety of proportions, from boxy and cropped to loose, fingertip-length styles, a newer shape also seen at Dior Homme over the weekend. Pants ranged from stovepipe slim and cropped to voluptuously flared, and none of them looked wrong.
Smith is proud to be one of the few sizable independent companies in fashion, and titled his collection “Independent Mind.” That made his quirky white jeans and T-shirts printed with ants a visual joke. “Such followers,” Smith sniped.