Paul Smith Headlines Rakuten Fashion Week in Tokyo
The designer’s jet-set show honored the uniforms of iconic 20th-century photographers.
Five decades in, and Paul Smith shows no signs of slowing down. Already this year, the British designer showed a Fall/Winter 2025 menswear collection in Paris and an exclusive capsule collection with Lee. Now, the designer has returned to Japan as a guest designer at Tokyo Fashion Week. The show, which took place Wednesday night, was presented as part of Japanese tech company Rakuten’s “R Project,” which helps develop the Japanese fashion industry.
Having visited Tokyo over 100 times, the city felt like a synergistic fit for Smith’s long-standing legacy. Though the FW25 collection initially debuted at Paris Fashion Week earlier this year, the Rakuten runway show opted for a co-ed format, featuring additional womenswear looks.
Inspired by the art of image making, the savory and rich color palette paid tribute to American photographer Saul Leiter, whose photography came to define mid-20th-century magazines. Orange, cyan, and silver pieces mimicked the traditional scale of early color photographs.
Beyond the palette, the collection’s relaxed silhouettes and haphazard layering honored the scruffy uniforms of other legendary photographers like David Bailey, Terence Donovan, and William Eggleston. Striped crewneck sweaters were paired with relaxed slacks while suiting took an easy monotone approach, color matching the shirts to the ties. The runway also featured the brand’s newest collaboration with Barbour, including wax jackets, shoes, and knitwear perfect for the eccentric photographer on the go.
Select items from the runway are currently available for purchase as a part of Rakuten’s see-now-buy-now capsule collection. Check out the full runway from the Tokyo show in the gallery above, and stay tuned to Hypbeast for more updates on the rest of the pieces.
