Paul Smith is a British fashion label founded in Nottingham in 1970 by designer Paul Smith and Pauline Denyer. Its identity is built around two contrasting elements: a script-style name and the multicoloured Signature Stripe. The label showed its first menswear collection in Paris in 1976, six years after its first shop opened, according to Business of Fashion.
The wordmark and Signature Stripe
The wordmark presents “Paul Smith” in black, flowing script. In the image below, the capital letters are prominent and the lowercase characters connect in a handwritten style. This describes its appearance; it does not establish who designed the lettering or when it was adopted.
The stripe supplies the identity’s colour. Paul Smith’s own account says coloured stripes appeared in collections from the 1970s and that the motif “has almost become a logo for the company.” The brand recounts Paul Smith winding coloured yarn onto card in the first Nottingham shop. The recognisable Signature Stripe took shape later: a published interview quotes him saying it was born in 1996 and included in the Spring/Summer 1997 collection. Paul Smith’s account of the stripe and WindowsWear’s report on the 2023 Tokyo exhibition describe these parts of its history.
The stripe combines bands of differing widths and many colours. The brand describes its palette as a combination of 40 shades and connects the motif with its “classic with a twist” philosophy. It appears across clothing and accessories, as well as in shop murals and installations. The brand’s Stripe in Motion feature documents uses including a hot-air balloon and a Covent Garden lighting installation.
Meaning and history
The stripe has a documented role in the collections dating back to the label’s early years, while its familiar Signature Stripe form followed in the 1990s. The wordmark and stripe do different visual work: the restrained black lettering names the label, while the changing colours and bands make the stripe recognizable across varied applications.
???? – Today
The image shows the name in black script on a plain background. Separately, the stripe remains an active part of the brand’s identity: the brand documents recent shop installations, and its Spring/Summer 2026 collaboration with Barbour used signature stripes, as reported by TheIndustry.fashion.
Disclaimer
This article is part of the educational resources provided by Logo Index, an independent archive covering logos, visual identities and graphic design history. Paul Smith and associated trademarks and brand assets remain the property of their respective rights holders where applicable.
