A timely celebration of British design legend Sir Paul Smith and his one-of-a-kind creativity

This innovative book captures the unique spirit of British fashion icon Sir Paul Smith through 50 objects chosen by Sir Paul himself for the inspiration they have provided him over the years – from a wax plate of spaghetti and a Dieter Rams radio to a Mario Bellini Cab chair and a bicycle seat.

Each object has impacted his worldview, his creative process, and his adherence to a design approach that’s always imbued with distinctly British wit and eccentricity. The book covers subjects as varied as breaking down the formality of wearing a suit, the importance of wit, and the benefits of remaining independent in an increasingly monopolized world, and includes personal contributions – handwritten notes, a sketch, or photograph – from such fashion and design heavyweights as Manolo Blahnik, Inès de la Fressange, Martin Parr, and John Pawson.

Updated with a fresh new fabric cover featuring the brand’s signature stripe and a brand-new preface written by Sir Paul especially for this edition, Paul Smith provides the ultimate insight into one of the fashion world’s most-loved creators.

About the Authors:

Sir Paul Smith CBE RDI is one of the UK’s foremost designers and is renowned for his creative spirit. His eponymous fashion brand combines traditional craftsmanship and cutting-edge design to create beautifully made modern pieces.

Tony Chambers is Founder and Creative Director of design consultancy TC & Friends and co-founder, with artist Ryan Gander, of OTOMOTO – the design, art and ideas platform. He is also Co-Chair of Brainstorm Design, Fortune magazine’s design x business conference. From 2003–2018 Tony served as Brand & Content Director, Editor-in-Chief and Creative Director of Wallpaper* magazine, to which he still contributes.

Sir Jonathan (Jony) Ive KBE RDI is a British-American industrial designer. Formerly Chief Design Officer at Apple, he now runs his own design firm, LoveFrom, with British designer Marc Newson.

Now in a new and more accessible compact format, Cyclepedia is a cornucopia of all that bicycle design has to offer, the ultimate gift for cycling enthusiasts everywhere

Architect and designer Michael Embacher’s unique collection of more than 250 bicycles, the only one of its kind, was lovingly collected over many years and exhibited around the world. This new compact edition of Cyclepedia offers an expanded selection of Embacher’s finest, most unusual and most coveted pieces, despite the fact that the collection is no longer intact.

With a foreword by design guru Paul Smith and a history of bicycle design by Michael Zappe and Martin Strubreiter, this homage to the beauty of two wheels is a celebration of the fastest, lightest, most innovative – and most inventive – bicycles designed over the past century. This stunning, carefully curated selection features some of the rarest, most beautiful and most sought-after bicycles from around the world, including classic racing bikes from the Tour de France, high-tech machines that employ the latest advances in materials science, and eccentric bikes designed for unusual uses.

With a redesigned layout that makes the most of Bernhard Angerer’s colourful photography, this edition features ten new bicycles from Embacher’s collection, including designs from Alex Singer, Alan, Textima and Puch.

Contents List:

Introduction by Michael Embacher • Foreword by Paul Smith • The Bicycles

About the Authors:

Michael Embacher, an architectural designer in Vienna, has amassed one of the most diverse bicycle collections in the world.

Paul Smith is one of the UK’s pre-eminent menswear and fashion designers, successfully exporting British style throughout the world. Despite his brand’s global presence, he remains actively involved in the business and has managed to retain the personal and unassuming touch for which he is admired and celebrated.

Paul Smith has created one of the world’s most successful fashion brands. In this richly illustrated book - which includes many photos taken by Paul Smith himself - excerpts from interviews with the designer recount his history and explain how he approaches design.
This talented creator finds inspiration everywhere: personal photographs, musicians, scrawled messages on Post-it notes, electronic gadgets, and more. From A for Architecture to Z for Zebra, this alphabetical manual not only highlights the eclectic sources of inspiration behind his unforgettable designs, but also the unique way in which Paul Smith sees the world, suggesting how he has continually been able to anticipate and reimagine trends in popular culture since opening his first small boutique in 1970.