Paul Smith menswear for Spring Summer 2011, 'Cosmic Rock' is a detailed, directional collection that references the beginning of Paul’s design career in the late 60's / early
'70's and the inspiration he felt during this brave new rock era, watching musicians Led Zeppelin and Jimi Hendrix mix new clothes with vintage. The elements that excited Paul most from this era; surreal galaxy prints, occult signs, batik, military costumes and vibrant cosmic inspired colours have been translated to create looks in new relaxed silhouettes using modern fabrics.
"I have gone back to the beginning of my design career at a time when the rock musicians I was going to see dressed in a bizarre mix of new clothes and vintage. The likes of Mitch Mitchell, the drummer for Jimi Hendrix, would wear a jacket made from old curtains, or Led Zeppelin wearing printed clothes featuring influences from the occult or from the constellations. It is not a collection that is about a retro look but it is very new using modern fabrics. A bit cosmic but very wearable. Lots of dark rich colours, purple, aubergine, magenta and indigo and above all made in very luxurious materials and to be worn in a very easy comfortable way."Paul Smith 2010
The silhouette contrasts oversize volume with skinny pieces, designed to be worn in a relaxed draping style; an upside down lapel tailored jacket paired with a shirt with tie collar and patchwork jeans, a cardigan style tailored jacket over a jersey teamed with military parachute trousers and a pleated sleeve tailored jacket contrasted with a slim trouser.
Tailoring remains a focus of the collection, Victorian influenced shapes with nipped in waists with over-constructed shoulders sit alongside unconstructed hand-stitched sheer jackets in light shirting fabrics and modern luxurious wool jackets in relaxed cardigan style shapes. Trousers are shown in extreme variation; cropped and tapered shapes, tailored shorts, skinny denim patchwork jeans and jodhpurs contrast with voluminous flight pants and tracksuit bottom inspired designs.
Shirting and knitwear follows this theme of extremes from short paired down shirts featuring small collars to giant oversized designs, dropped neckline and collarless shirts. Luxurious fine knits for the refined gentlemen is juxtaposed with punk inspired metallic stripe knits and modern heavy shawl collar cardigans.
In contrast to previous summer collections of lighter fresher pastels, the colours palettes this season are rich and dark, with four groups dominating; purples, magentas, indigos and
silvery tones. The colours reflect the long summer evenings, with particular focus on the night sky. This night sky theme can be seen most prominently through the prints of the collection with archaic diagrams of the sky, constellations, stars and galaxies featuring heavily.
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