Paul Smith as a guest designer at Tokyo Fashion Week

The British label Paul Smith presented its latest autumn/winter collection 2025 at Tokyo Fashion Week this week. The collection is “inspired by the art of image design”. The event took place as part of the “by R” project, an initiative by the main sponsor of the Fashion Week, Rakuten, which is intended to support the Japanese fashion industry by participating established brands as headliners.

This season, Paul Smith followed in the footsteps of Bape and Marimekko, who had taken the guest designer place in the last editions. For Paul Smith, participation underlined the “decades of connection” between Japan and the designer of the same name of the brand, who is said to have visited the country more than 100 times.

The show offered an insight into an upcoming collaboration between Paul Smith and Barbour, which, among other things, worked on jackets, knitting, shoes and accessories. A See-Nee-Buy-now-now capsule collection design designed exclusively for the “by R” project was also unveiled. The focus was on a photo taken by Paul Smith himself, which could be seen on shirts, T-shirts and accessories.

This reflected the overall concept of the collection, which united looks for women and men, which were intended as a tribute to the “personal uniforms of some of the most iconic photographers of the 20th century”, such as William Eggleston, David Bailey and Saul Leiter, whose color photography inspired the “ink -like” color palette of the line.

Traditional tailoring materials such as her fishing bodies were used in addition to contrasting fabrics, which gave some designs unexpected twists. Others appeared in exaggerated sizes or in patchwork arrangements as further references to the often unaffected appearance of the muses of the collection. However, the focus was on a pressure of the photo “Field Flower”, recorded by Harold B. Smith, the father of Paul Smith, who was seen on shirts, ties, evening wear and knitting goods.