At the moment there’s certain moments in my life where I just have to pinch myself, as I can’t quite believe how lucky I am. Yesterday was definitely one of those moments… I got to spend over an hour in the office of no one other than Sir Paul Smith, a fashion legend and quite simply an inspirational, wonderful person.

Myself and a handful of Handpicked Media bloggers were invited for an intimate tea with Sir Paul Smith to talk about his new perfume Optimistic, to talk about fashion, but mostly to admire and play around in his eclectic office. As I arrived, I was greeted by the man himself, (“Hi, I’m Paul, *kiss kiss*), which immediately set the tone for the rest of our time there: for someone of his stature in fashion, he has to be the most down-to-earth, grounded person I have ever met. We had cookies and tea and we happily chatted away without realising an hour had gone by.

Of all things that struck me most from meeting the man, is that, even at age 64, he is so incredibly happy, playful, unfazed, almost childlike and optimistic towards everything, which is probably why he has been so successful in both business and in life generally. He shared with us so many wonderful anecdotes, I could feel nothing but humbled by this great man. And by hearing these all these stories, “Optimistic” is truly the perfect name for his latest fragrance, as it embodies who Paul Smith really is.

His office is this colourful, eclectic mix of books and items that people have sent him over the years (every morning when he comes into the office, he personally responds to each and every person writing to him). He knows the stories and the names of every person who sent him something special, he meets them, he builds relationships with them. One anonymous fan has been sending him so many special items for years that arrive with hundreds of stamps on them, that he has even put up an entire exhibition about the items called “Stamped Objects”.

He told us the story of a 13 year old Belgian girl who sent him a peanut-shaped nativity play. Not only did he know her name, but he knew it was her birthday this weekend and she would be coming out to meet him later this year. Or there’s the story about the girl who came in who mentioned she couldn’t find a suit for her (small) boyfriend. Paul Smith sent him one. The guy, an architect, responded with sending an exact replica of the office, to the smallest details, despite never having been there. Paul Smith cherishes these things and loves sharing the stories. Nothing about him is putting on an act, he just genuinely loves his fans, and that’s a pretty nice sentiment.

As if we needed more confirmation about how nice he was, he told us how he has a chat with the street cleaner at 6am every morning, how he’s flying to Japan this weekend just to go and give his staff “a big hug”, and how he never really goes shopping “because I get everything for free here”. And yes, I can confirm he wears Paul Smith underwear… We were also given a private tour of the rest of the offices, of his design team, who have started work on SS12 (I have pictures, but have decided to leave those out, let’s leave a little bit of suspense, aye?) and the showrooms. It was easy to forget we were there to talk about perfume.

About his own success he says it’s pretty simple: it’s about putting people at ease. Especially in Japan he’s been pretty successful, and he says it’s all about making people laugh. During long meetings, he’s known to whip out an inflatable chicken or take out his big briefcase which actually houses a small train set… He said: “Business is hard, but a suitcase and an inflatable chicken helps!” That’s just one of the many moments where you realise Paul Smith isn’t your average fashion designer. He’s probably part comedian too.

On my way out I stopped by the AW11 press day, which I will cover in a different post, as this one was getting a little long…

I could go on for a while, tell you about the 80 crates of rabbits (not real) he’s got in storage somewhere, or the Dalai Lama wearing his scarf, but it would take too long…
But on a final note… to see Sir Paul Smith playing with a remote control Tarantula just has to be one of my favourite fashion moments so far. Fact.

Optimistic, available exclusively from Boots April 7th, nationwide May 5th