Another Spring ’18 show, another tide of Hawaiian shirts. In fact this season has had so many shirts it seems quaint, almost laughable, to image a shirt might be anything but Hawaiian. Naturally, Paul Smith is no parvenu when it comes to vibrantly patterned short-sleeved shirting.
“Back in the ’70s I used to buy a lot of vintage Hawaiian shirts from shops in New York and then bring them back to my shop in Nottingham. A lot of kids would come from Sheffield and Wigan to buy them.” Some of those left unsold remained in Smith’s archives until being disinterred to become the inspiration for the prints that ran through this collection. They included a lovely frond-framed landscape of some paradise isle in moonlight, a landscape of coral and hibiscus punctuated by carp and fantails mid-twist, and sections of a newly rustled up landscape of sunset-strafed mountains above which was advertised a Paul Smith brand of tuna and mackerel. These prints were not confined to the shirting, but rioted beyond it onto coated ripstop parkas, wrapped silk dresses for women, printed trousers for men, espadrilles, jacquard jackets, jacquard bombers, knitted T-shirts, a Tuna brand tie (for big fish in business), knitted sweaters, handbags, and totes. Their patterns were also used as the outline for the lace inserts on a black silk dress and the drawn threadwork on a very pretty-pretty for Smith violently red dress.
The collection was not limited to print. Some of its primary colors were imported into the plain pants (wider, high rise, single- to triple-pleat) and jackets often used as accents to their vibrancy. There was also an undertow of attractive checked suiting, cut narrowish, straight, and long, and some attractive dimpled heavy seersucker combat pants and field jackets in navy, olive, and sand.
However, as the models walked the finale of a collection entitled Ocean to “Octopus’s Garden” by the Beatles, it was hard to conclude that the star this afternoon was anything but the Hawaiian shirt and its similarly printed Paul Smith cousins. What did he think was the secret of the garment’s enduring and resurgent popularity? “Well,” said Smith: “firstly it’s an easy shirt to wear. And we are coming out of a period of skinny, body-hugging clothes in general. With a wider higher rise pant it looks good to wear a shirt out over it. But it’s just a summer shirt, really. I suppose, in a way we shouldn’t really use the word Hawaiian.” Oh no. Don’t say that now—it’s the last day of the season!
