A great British success story, Paul Smith was born in Nottinghamshire in 1946, and although he left school at 15 to work in a fashion warehouse, his sole passion in life was cycling. Unfortunately, a bad accident left him hospitalised for six months and destroyed his hopes of becoming the old Bradley Wiggins, so instead he turned to his day job for inspiration and began to design, attracting the attention of the warehouse boss, who put him in charge of ordering menswear at the tender age of seventeen.

By 1970, he had saved enough to invest in his own boutique, Paul Smith Vêtement Pour Homme, on a shady back alley in Nottingham. The shop was apparently heavily perfumed to overpower the smell of Smith’s dog, and sounds utterly charming. The boutique began selling prestige clothes usually only available inside London, along with Smith’s own designs that he would lease out for production to local factories. After a few years of steady growth, Smith moved from the back alleys to the main street of Nottingham, before buying a disused bakery in the then rundown area of Covent Garden to convert into his first London store. Smith’s love of the simple and classic British design led to him becoming one of the nation’s most prominent designers, and his style has since become popular throughout the world, with stores thriving in Tokyo, Los Angeles, and Bangalore, amongst other places.

Smith has also become a major player in the UK fragrance market with much the same philosophy: simple, uncluttered notes making for classic scents that turn heads. Paul Smith Men is a daring men’s fragrance with top notes of bergamot, Brazilian orange, lavender, basil, and cardamom; a heart of fig, violet leaves, hyacinth, and geranium; and base notes of oakmoss, vetiver, sandalwood, and biomusk. Its counterpoint, Paul Smith Women, is a floral Eau de Parfum, vivid and woody with a combination of bergamot and clementine, blackcurrant, green pear and a hint of pink peppercorns. Both are stunning in their design and scent, and both are available now at super prices from your local Fragrance Mad website.