EL PAÍS reports that on a Saturday afternoon in September, visitors to Paul Smith's Mayfair flagship in London had no idea the tall, impeccably dressed man serving them was Paul Smith himself.

At 80, the British designer still cannot resist helping customers, telling EL PAÍS: "They are the ones who pay my wages."

The interview marks the publication of his memoir, *Threads: My Life in Style*, which EL PAÍS says is aimed less at looking back than at showing a new generation of designers that success is still possible the old-fashioned way — through hard work, sacrifice, personal conviction and boundless curiosity.

Smith, who left school at 15 and saw a cycling career derailed by an accident, discovered fashion in a fabric workshop in his native Nottingham.

What makes the portrait striking, according to EL PAÍS, is that a designer whose empire spans 130 stores — 20 of them in Japan — employs more than 1,200 people and once posted earnings above €235 million ($264 million) describes his achievements so modestly.

He told the paper he never chased rapid success and was content to enjoy the day-to-day. EL PAÍS credits much of that groundedness to his wife, Pauline Denyer, whom he met at 21 and who "raised my standards," refusing substandard buttons, fabrics and finishes.

Smith also says he still dresses famous people but thinks of them as ordinary people with good days and bad days, citing David Bowie's curiosity as a lasting lesson. "I always try to see things in a new light," he told the paper.

It is a lesson in consistency that beauty editors would recognize: the Woman & Home beauty team confesses in a companion piece that the one thing that truly makes a difference to skin is consistency over any product or brand, even when they fail to follow their own advice.

The memoir arrives at a moment Smith himself calls difficult: EL PAÍS reports he blames Brexit for overnight losing a trade agreement with 26 of the 65 countries his brand sells to, and describes a world recovering from the pandemic's standstill and destabilized by wars and dictators.

His answer, per the paper, is the Paul Smith Foundation, which teaches young designers the business skills — accounting, tax management, growth strategy — he had to learn on his own.

The approach appears to be working: EL PAÍS notes roughly a quarter of Paul Smith's customers are now in their twenties, evidence the 80-year-old can keep one generation's loyalty while appealing to the next.