Paul Smith and music, a love and rock story

To celebrate the 25th anniversary of REM's Automatic For The People, British creator Paul Smith launches a capsule collection. And tell about his relationship with music.

The London Appeal
"I spent my childhood in Nottingham but, from the late 1960s, I went to London to see concerts by Led Zeppelin, Hendrix or the Stones. At that time, a friend of mine used to make clothes for rockers from crazy fabrics. He knew Jimmy Page, so I could imagine for him a velvet pants decorated with stars. I remember that his waist circumference was only 60 centimetres, which was very small....

I then made some T-shirts that I was going to offer in the concerts. I didn't have anything left of that time: since I didn't have any money, I had to sell everything. It wasn't until later that I started to keep archives. But recently, in a shop near Carnaby Street, I found some of my old T-shirts... sold 80 pounds! 90 euros."

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Jimmy, David and the others...
"A few years ago, I collaborated with Led Zeppelin through my relationship with Jimmy Page. He had remastered the old albums of the band and couldn't find the merchandising related to music of very good quality. The collection quickly ran out of stock. This year, the REM group, which was celebrating the 25th anniversary of Automatic For the People, wanted something similar.

We created a capsule collection and launched it in London, Milan and New York. In general, these pieces are very successful: the T-shirts designed for David Bowie's latest album, which unfortunately were launched the day he died, quickly became collectibles. We have produced more and donated the profits from the sale to a cancer association."

An aesthetic score

"I have always been very inspired by the 1960s, where everything was freer, more experimental, not only in fashion but also in design, shop decoration... The men wore flower shirts, embroidery; they had long hair. This was particularly the case in London, where personal expression was favoured.