In 1970 a young 24 year old lad from Nottingham, who at the time was still recovering from a seriously bicycle accident, opened a small men’s clothes shop called Vêtements Pour Homme on the city’s Byard Lane.

Fast forward some 50 years, that young man has grown into one of Britain’s foremost designers. Where he is renowned for his creative spirit, which combines tradition and modernity. Starting with one men’s collection, the business now comprises collections for men, women and children, including, shoes, accessories, fragrance and home furnishings and these ranges are available in some 70 countries spanning the entire globe. Where celebrities as diverse as

Stanley Tucci John Hamm, Ian McKellan, Mark Strong and the late David Bowie all are proud to wear his clothes. Plus has collected both a CBE, a RDI and a knighthood, amongst other international accolades along the way.

Yes SIR PAUL SMITH has spent the last 50 years growing a global business.Renowned for his passion, positivity and determination, Paul puts a lot of his enduring success down to the many influential people who’ve advised him over the past five decades. In turn, he has shared his learnings with lots of ambitious and talented individuals looking to start their own businesses.

To mark he’s Golden anniversary in the business, his personal archive of helpful advice is here for you to explore and learn from, too. If you’re an aspiring designer, or even a chef or publisher with a creative and entrepreneurial spirit, Paul Smith’s Foundation gives you the guidance and inspiration you need to take things to the next level, making sure you have fun along the way.

Paul Smith’s Foundation was created to give helpful advice to creative people. While running a successful business for over 50 years, Paul received lots of tips from some amazing cultural figures. In turn, he advised many up-and-coming creatives looking to grow their own businesses. Now he wants to share all his learnings with a wider audience

The Foundation is for anyone with a creative and entrepreneurial spirit. You might be an aspiring designer, or even a chef or publisher. You’re looking for guidance on how to take your ambitions to the next level, and, of course ensure you have fun along the way.

Highlights from Paul Smith’s Autumn/Winter2020 show & some of his pearls of wisdom

“Keep on doing it. Never think you’ve made it. There’s always somebody round the corner who’s going to overtake you in the fast lane. Keep aware, understand what you’re doing for a living, keep your feet on the ground and don’t get too big-headed and you’ll be alright”.

“For me, a great entrepreneur is very much about loving life, getting up in the morning, being positive, obviously knowing what you’re an entrepreneur “at”. It’s very much about focus, energy, lateral thinking, and that’s it, really.”

“In the beginning, it was just about owning a shop focused on self-expression and quite a lot of the clothes were made by Pauline or myself. We have never been people who aspire to jets or chauffeur-driven cars. We’re just very at ease with life, and love and health. Just doing normal things.“

“When David Bowie came to my room, which is full of stuff, he just couldn’t stop asking questions. “Where’s that from? What’s that book about?” He had this lovely curious mind and that’s why his songs and his persona and chameleon way existed, was because he was always ready for the next thing, and turning it into something different”

“For me, a great entrepreneur is very much about loving life, getting up in the morning, being positive, obviously knowing what you’re an entrepreneur “at”. It’s very much about focus, energy, lateral thinking, and that’s it, really.”

Happy Anniversary Sir Paul from Clothes-Make-the-Man.com & Good Luck with the Paul Smith’s Foundation.

That, yes that particular time of the year is creeping closer and closer and so to with it, is the thought of present shopping and what to buy, either for someone else, or maybe quite simply, yourself.

The freshest subscription finally hits your drawers. Pants & Socks provide exactly what they say, pants and socks delivered regularly to keep you stocked up. A package for your package.  They are delivered fresh to your door. You are in total control, get your favourite brands, delivered on your terms. You’ll never need to worry about running out of Pants & Socks again.

Pants & Socks is a great subscription or gift. It’s easy to join the club in three little steps.

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With all of your favourite brands. Pants & Socks have curated the crème de la crème of underwear fashion for you to choose from. The sexiest, most stylish, and most comfortable of all of the best brands are at your fingertips. Calvin Klein, Hugo Boss, Tommy Hilfiger, Björn Borg, French Connection, CR7, Ted Baker, Ralph Lauren, Happy Socks and more.

With deliveries available as a one off or in 1,2,3 or 12 month subscriptions, you’ll be stocked in now time at all. Visit PantsAndSocks.com to find your favourite pair.

A new study  looking into the happiness of people at work has found 52 percent of Britons think their co-workers are their closest friends. It was also found their friendship is because they spend the most amount of time with them. Britons also think it takes a year to establish a friendship with a colleague, as reported on HR News.

So what does that mean for our happiness with our jobs, while most of us are working at home during the pandemic?

Weighing in from America, Shasta Nelson, author of the new #1 Best Selling book, The Business of Friendship: Making the Most of the Relationships Where We Spend Most of Our Time [HarperCollins Leadership, August 18, 2020], has provided the following insight on the results of this study:

• The data continues to show that those who have a best friend at work make the best employees— fewer sick days, less turn-over, better customer service, and more contribution to the team. So seeing that 52% of UK-based adults viewers one of their co-workers to be their closest friend is really encouraging! (Compare that to Nelson’s  research for her book The Business of Friendship showing only 40% of Americans have a best friend at work.)
• The top 5 reasons explaining why they felt closest to their work friends all are examples of what Shasta teaches are the 3 Relationship Requirements present in every healthy relationship: Consistency (shared time and regular interactions), Positivity (feeling good about those interactions), and Vulnerability (feeling like they know more about each other). Reasons 1, 3, 4 are examples of Consistency, #2 is an example of Vulnerability, and #5 is the Positivity we look for in every healthy relationship.
• However with only 23% of respondents feeling like their friends “truly care” about them, we could ascertain that the area that is the lowest is our positivity, which matches Nelson’s studies that continue to show that of the 3 Requirements: Positivity continues to be the one that has the most room for improvement. An abundance of positive emotions are critical to our bond because they inform how much we want to do the other two things: spend time together (Consistency) and share who we are (Vulnerability).
• The data point of it taking 6 more months to feel close to a co-worker if they aren’t working closely together (8 months compared to 14) gives us a good glimpse into our future work relationships as more of us work remotely and may not be interacting with our co-workers as frequently. It’s important that we re-set the expectations that bonding is likely going to take longer.
• The reason 65% of us admit that we share more with our work friends than our non-work friends due to “seeing them 5 days a week” reinforces just how important our Consistency is correlated with our Vulnerability— we aren’t choosing to share more with our work friends because we like them better than our non-work friends per say, but we’re sharing more simply because we interact more frequently. As our Consistency increases, so too does what we feel like we know about each other.
• In Nelson’s on research, she found that 60% of us don’t believe our organizations are doing enough to foster friendships at work for us. Not only do we want them doing more, but we hold them somewhat responsible for whether we have those friendships or not: 56% of us believe that whether we have a best friend at work is almost entirely dependent upon our employers and the culture they establish, with only 10% of respondents saying they weren’t responsible at all.

Mr Beckham, we all know as, one of the most iconic footballers of all time, one part of the most powerful celebrity couples since Antony & Cleopatra. One if not the most style conscious, followed, copied and admired style muses in menswear in all time !

However, if I said he is one of the most successful and popular Fragrance creators, would you be surprised ? You shouldn’t be as he is literally worth his weight in Gold and has partnered with one of the biggest Fragrance houses in the world, Coty and worked with some of the best and most respected perfumers in the industry including Pierre Negrin, Maurice Roucel, Nelly Hachem-Ruiz, Nathalie Lorson, Aurelien Guichard, Jean-Christophe Herault, Amandine Clerc-Marie, Beatrice Piquet, Alain Astori, Alienor Massenet, Elise Benat, Jean-Pierre Bethouart, Juliette Karagueuzoglou, Sylvie Fischer, Celine Barel, Louise Turner and Frank Voelkl.

Bold Instinct is the latest addition to the David Beckham Fragrance range and marks a new era – 15 years after introducing his signature scent Instinct, followed by Homme, The Essence, Beyond and Classic. Some, 19 fragrances in 15 years and 2020 marks his twentieth mens scent launch.

Bold Instinct launches with an inspiring message of choice — encouraging men to always stay true to themselves and make the choices that are right for them, regardless of what others might think. “When I’ve made a choice,” says David Beckham, “I’ve always believed in it. Because the right choice is the one that is right by you.”

For Bold Instinct, David Beckham again partnered with renowned perfumer Jean-Christophe Herault to craft a new scent conveying self-assurance and conviction. Bold Instinct is as powerful as it is elegant, bringing together a charismatic and stylish blend of earthy, whisky-like notes with warming spices.

Clean and confident, Bold Instinct is a reflection of the man who knows what he wants and lives what he believes.

The Bold Instinct launch is inspired by Beckham’s values and the purpose of his fragrance brand – a commitment to following your intuition and making bold decisions that are ‘right by you’. David Beckham said “Throughout my life and my career, I’ve just tried to make decisions that were right for me. To be honest, not everyone backed my choices, but that’s not what matters. What’s important is that I backed myself every step of the way.”