This may be the only time you find a link related to clothing on this site. But it is not the clothing that motivates the link. We liked the way this fellow explained his unique humility, so we have watched the same publication for more surprises. Here is one. A man of considerable success and apparently little pretension. Artisan ethos. Nothing about conservation, but a pretty clear sense of community (never mind the blue bloods and rock stars; it is the early morning conversations with the road sweeper that we can relate to) and at least with his five decades of marriage a clear sense of collaboration as well:
What’s the best thing and what is the weirdest thing you’ve ever received?
I have a fan that has been sending me things covered in stamps for over 20 years. I don’t even have any idea who it is, there’s never any letter. Around my desk at the moment I have a red watering can for the garden, a yellow sunflower, a bowling pin, a boat-shaped birdhouse, a yellow chicken and a long piece of wood, all covered in stamps with the address on it. So that’s just one crazy thing. But I get all kinds of things – I just had a little book sent to me, a story about me by a 10-year-old schoolgirl.
A 10-year-old wrote a book for you?
Yeah, it’s remarkable. I’ve got a jacket from Usain Bolt and I’ve got a bag here that says “To: PS, From: PS” and that’s from Patti Smith and inside is a little marionette. So I get beautiful things from famous people and amazing things from strangers, anything really. We’re constantly astounded, all of us in the office.
Can anything surprise you guys anymore?
Richard from the reception is not at all fazed by anything anymore because he’s seen so much madness – including a live rabbit and two pigeons, you know, strange things. This morning I read a sign that said the word items to be sent to Italy and I read it as hens – you know, like a chicken – and I said to one of my assistants, “Are we sending some hens to Italy?” And she said, “No, that says items. But to be honest, Paul, if you said that we were sending some hens to Italy we wouldn’t be surprised!” (Laughs) I’m getting goose bumps just talking to you about all these things. Even though they happen very regularly they still surprise me.
Do people ask for anything in return when they send you stuff?
Everything we get, nothing is about asking for something. Humility these days is really considered cautiously by people, because they think if you have humility then there’s an ulterior motive – which is so sad! If you’re just a nice person and you say please and thank you and open doors and you’ve got old fashion values and communications skills and you’re helpful, people don’t believe you anymore! But somehow we seemed to have bypassed that here in this lovely building.
Do you think you get these things sent to you because of your positive attitude and the way you treat others?
I really hope so, yeah. I’ve always been a very easy to talk to person, which I inherited from my father. He passed away when he was 94 and he still had lots of young friends because he was just a simple man. And I’m a very simple guy. The first person I talk to most days is the road sweeper outside the swimming bath where I go swimming at 5 o’clock every morning. – a road sweeper, the Prime Minister, the Queen of England, a rock star…
Is it difficult to be viewed as the “nice guy” in the fashion industry because a designer is supposed to have a big ego?
Well for me personally it’s a lovely thing. But I think if I were more of a distant person, more aggressive or more precious, maybe from a business point of view we’d be seen in the same category as other people who are revered as being top design brands. But we sell our clothes next to all the big design brands like Prada and Balenciaga, we just don’t promote ourselves in that way.
How do you go about it?
The company has a real reflection of my own personal way, you know? Years ago in Japan there was a designer who was having a party one evening for a new shop and he told me, “You don’t act like a designer.” He’s no longer in business, in my opinion because he was too distant from the people that he wanted to sell clothes to.
You have over 200 shops around the world. What is your secret?
We’ve never gone backwards as a company and we’ve never borrowed money, ever. We own the building where I’m sitting right now. It started very modestly with my wife and I, with a small amount of savings, and it’s always just grown very organically and now we employ a thousand people just in Europe. The clothes sell and people like them and not just because we give them away or because we have celebrity front rows or because we spend 80 million Euros a year on advertising. We just do what we do and luckily people like it and hopefully it continues to do well.
I love the consistency that seems to manifest itself in many different parts of your life, like the fact that you’re still with the woman that you’ve been with since you were 21.
That’s right, absolutely. And we still love each other and we’re still very intrigued and she’s still inspiring. She’s got a nice way of thinking about things. And I can tell you from my heart that we, Pauline and I, have never sat down and tried to create anything. We just met, I was a shop assistant, she was a teacher, we fell in love, and she said, “You know, you’ve got so much energy and ideas, why don’t you try to have a little shop?” And then we had a little shop and then we thought, “Oh let’s make a small collection of clothes and see whether people want them.” So it was never a plan or a big meeting. It always just very gently went along…
Organikos 