by LONDON – Paul Smith is back this week as a headline designer at the Rakuten Fashion Week Tokyo, shows his men’s and women’s collections in autumn 2025 and promotes collaboration with Niwaki with specialists for Japanese garden gardens.
The fashion Week is sponsored by the Tech conglomerate based in Tokyo. Smith’s show, which takes place on Wednesday evening in the Tokyo National Museum, is part of the Rakuten project “by R”, which is supposed to support the Japanese fashion industry.
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While he regularly visited Japan for work, Smith said that he hadn’t been able to show a show in the country for more than a decade, and he can hardly wait.
“We have both women and men, and there will be around 40 looks and the new barbo collection,” said Smith, who also created an exclusive Orchid print that is based on a photo of his late father for this occasion.
“Japan’s traditional flower is a Chrysantheme, but the other two things you see in Japan are the bonsai tree and the orchid.
The autumn men’s collection, which Smith presented in Paris in January, was full of prints, which appeared on the matching shirts and ties on the color-sided photographs of Elder Smith and the doodles of the designer-based.
The autumn collection also channeled the light glamor of young David Bailey and Terence Donovan, who often dressed heavy clothing and layers for fashion shooting outdoor.
This collection contained Heritage fabrics that, according to Smith, had been thrown into a Tumble dryer for a “dry, neglected, classic car”. It also included thorough -safe fabrics, space -colored wool and the check pattern of the Prince of Wales.
Smith will also show his collection of women, which he usually presented in an exhibition room, and the 23-member Paul Smith loves the Barbour collection, which shows a Frisian cow pressure and that ends up on the shop soils in October.
Ryo Matsumura, Senior Vice President, Managing Executive Officer, Commerce and Marketing Company at the Rakuten Group, described Smith’s participation in the week as “such a decisive moment”.
He added: “We believe that the partnership with first-class brands is the key to the international presence of the presence of the Tokyo fashion scene, and we are pleased that Paul Smith’s influence is swinging worldwide and Tokyo’s unique style brings with it.
Japan is like a second home for Smith, whose long -time minority investor and license partner Itochu Corp. Smith has 150 business in the country, and it is its largest market outside the United Kingdom that generates 40 percent of the business.
He is often greeted like a celebrity, and customers love his cheeky sense of humor, soft tailoring and use of colorful British men’s fabrics.
In an interview in 2020 with the WWD, Smith said that his Japanese business survived for so long because he had fully integrated into the country and Japan not only looked at another place for money.
“I was humble to go to this place named Japan, who did not believe in ’83 that they would ever visit in their lives.
“I was interested in culture and food.
During an interview at the beginning of this week, Smith said that he would never forget the faith that ITOCHU had tough when they worked together for the first time in 1984.
“They trusted me and confidante of the fact that I could open business and get them going,” said Smith, adding that ITOCHU, one of Japan’s greatest general trading companies, had never asked him to change his collections or aesthetics for the Japanese consumer.
In addition to the show, Smith plans to visit Kyoto to see his business there and do a number of press dates with the founder of Niwaki, Jake Hobson. Niwaki, which offers a specialist for Japanese garden tools, has based in Great Britain with a shop in London.
Smith has teamed up with Niwaki for joint collaboration with the fire fighting, which was launched last year. The collaboration includes a three-colored leather tool bag and secateurs with colored leather wires that are wrapped around the handles to imitate the Paul Smith Signature Stripe. The collection also includes scissors and a weed knife.
“It is a very cool collaboration,” said Smith, adding that he and Hobson share the love of “all the wonderful garden tools and beautiful, amazing secretors for trimming bonsai trees” and other delicate plants and flowers.
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