11/09/2026
📣 In 1970 a young man from Nottingham opened a shop on a back alley called Byard Lane. It was three metres square, open on Fridays and Saturdays, and the first week took £52. His girlfriend Pauline, a fashion designer, taught him what he did not know. He called the shop Paul Smith.
Twenty-five years later, Stephen and Jane sold a model-making business and the house that went with it, moved into a rented flat with two small children, and used that money to turn a storefront on Upper Street into a jewellery workshop with a shop at the front.
We had known Paul's world for a while. Stephen and Jane had run a stall in the punk years making accessories nobody else was making. Starting in 1995, Stephen began designing various men's collections for Paul Smith which were then sold in his shops around the world. More collections followed sold as 'Stephen Einhorn for Paul Smith', including a small brass and pewter keyring to promote Pauls Smith's name.
✨ This year Sir Paul Smith turned 80 and published a memoir, Threads: My Life in Style. To commemorate this milestone, he is moving into another one of London's legendary landmarks - The Corner Shop at Selfridges. Until 19 September you will find him working the on shop floor among his own furniture and photographs, and signing books on Friday and Saturday. It is what he did in 1970, just with a bigger window!
We feel proud to have been part of Paul's history of makers in London. As for us, we are 31 years in. We still make everything in the same Islington building. The shop is still at the front, the workshop is still in-house and we still draw all of our designs.
🚀 We learned a good deal from watching Paul: That a small shop with a British point-of-view can outlast almost anything, and that you can find inspiration in everything.
Featured designs in this post: Designed for Paul Smith, Still Available Now
https://www.stepheneinhorn.co.uk/?utm_name=sked&utm_source=facebook&utm_medium=social&utm_content=sked_6aa2e833da7682ce9dc1a84e
