Paul Smith

Having bought the paul smith wallet shop, Smith didn't have enough cash to do it up. Three years later he did and the tatty old bakery fittings were stripped out and the shop spruced up into a stark, elegant Le Corbusier-inspired style. As well as clothes, Smith sold quirky penknives, notebooks and pens paul smith bags that he picked up on his travels. His most inspired find was the Filofax, a leatherbound personal organiser he unearthed at Norman; Hill, a tiny company hidden under an East London railway arch.

When the neighbouring shop came up for sale, Smith bought it. As he didn't have the heart to rip out the lovely old wooden fittings, he patched them up instead. The extra space was used to sell more idiosyncratic things-old Beano annuals, first-edition books and, after he began travelling to Japan in 1982, comical Japanese toys and gadgets-alongside Smith's clothes. He filled the windows with furniture by designer friends like Tom Dixon and James Dyson's G-Force vacuum cleaner. As a young designer, Marc Newson stopped by to show Smith a watch in the hope of persuading him to sell it. Paul said:It's a nice paul smith trainer, but it's not a nice price, recalled Newson. He was right.It was too expensive.That was an important lesson for me.