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Outrageous, greed and avarice .

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Ah, I used to live not far from there and went regularly but not been for 3 or 4 years. I did hear it's lost all the nice little shops now. It used to be good for Christmas shopping!

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Nice street market on Saturdays.

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I put a new phone system in his place off Bridlesmith gate, in the early 80's, when I worked for BT, from memory he appeared a very arrogant man then.

Cant say his style of clothing has ever appealed to me, but then I am far from being a poser.

I dress for comfort especially here in Oz with the warmer climate, something I did notice from my recent trip back was that people there now, mainly the younger ones dress more for "pose" value than for practicality.

Even my wife's older brother would not be seen dead without his Calvin Klein jeans !

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Well, all I can say is that nearly 40 years ago Paul Smith did me a big personal favour.

In 1976 I moved from Nottingham down to Witham in Essex to join my wife to be. We'd already bought a lovely little terraced house and I'd got a job to go to in Chelmsford as the head of the architectural/planning/surveying dept for a firm of estate agents.

While preparing to leave my job with Royle and Whitehorn Architects at Castle Place, my colleague Richard, a 'fashion icon', suggested that, rather than the informal everyday wear we had up in Nottingham, things might be different 'Daan Saaf' something I had noticed, and was clearly expected to adhere to.

So he dragged me off around town one lunchtime to get me fitted up with a decent jacket, first stop, The Birdcage, nooo, far to expensive. Next stop was this funny little shop on Byard Lane called Paul Smiths. In we went, I looked at the jackets with prices starting at £100 and suggested we knocked it on the head and went to C & A instead. The assistant asked me what I wanted a jacket for, I replied for work down in Chelmsford, he turned round and shouted 'Paul', the next minute a bloke that I learnt was Paul Smith, not that it meant much to me, appeared, looked me up and down and said, 'What do you want this jacket for'. I explained about my job move etc etc. 'Right, I'll sort you out'. He reappeared with this stunning brown herringbone jacket, 'Try this on', it fitted like a glove. 'Great' I said, 'But I doubt whether I can afford it'.

At this point he showed me round the back where he was personally cutting out and designing all sorts of garments, he said that the jacket I'd tried on was one he'd made up and hand stitched himself to try and get into the London market, but they'd rejected it. He suggested that working in Chelmsford, I'd probably do work in London, 'You can tell those Southerners that this jacket is made in Nottingham, why should they get all the credit'.

I asked how much, he charged me for the cost of materials, which were clearly tip top, and nothing else, £20.

That bloody jacket lasted me years, my ex missus chucked it away in the end, how much would a personally hand made Paul Smith jacket be worth now.

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Ex Mrs's can be pain can't they Firbeck, one of mine scissored 3 suits as a parting shot,......all from Burtons!!

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  • 2 months later...
  • 2 years later...

I've actually had stuff from PS several times, and I must admit that the quality is superb, but at 72, I'm happy with what's on offer at H of F. Plenty of choices to suit most pockets, a fantastic range, and invariably there's special offers on. 

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Actually did some work for the Vivviene Westwood set up.......and like Paul Smith......very expensive......good quality no doubt but the difference in price from shall we say ordinary outlets. is out of all proportion............when i did some work for them i was wearing a great 'Crombie' purchased in a sale at Primark £20.(a few years ago).............customers were asking me 'can i get one like that in here'............certainly upstairs sir,.........but the price was about £600,................

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