Paul Smith’s Roads Less Traveled

The Unstoppables is a series about people whose ambition is undimmed by time. Below, Paul Smith explains, in his own words, what continues to motivate him.

As a teenager, I wanted to be a racing cyclist. But then at 17 I had a bad crash and was in the hospital for a long time. Eventually, when I found creativity, it was by chance — at a pub.

The Belle Inn in Nottingham, England, was where all the students from the University of Nottingham went. There were all of these 18- to 20-year-olds talking about Kandinsky and Kokoschka, and I had never even heard of the Bauhaus. I met some fashion students there, and one was opening a small boutique. Her father was going to sponsor the shop, and she said she needed help. I said, “OK.”

We found premises, I did window dressing, and then three years into that I met Pauline Denyer, who eventually became my wife.

She had studied couture at the Royal College of Art. She came to live with me and basically taught me my trade. At the time, there were a lot of really good, innovative designers in Britain, but a lot fell by the wayside because the quality was not good enough to export to stores in America or Japan. It’s because of Pauline’s background in couture, the standard she set, the training I got from her, that I’m in business.

From 1972 to 1980, as a young designer, I did lots of freelance work in order to support my tiny collection of clothes. For a time I was designing for a mill in Yorkshire, and a man I met there, a Mr. Hall, gave me one of the best pieces of advice. He said: “When somebody offers you an opportunity, always take a breath. Be enthusiastic about their request, but say: ‘That sounds really exciting. Can I come back to you tomorrow?’ Give yourself time not to be put on the spot.”