“It affects tourists’ decision to come to London, which affects restaurants, galleries. The Royal Academy’s attendance is drastically down as a result of this,” continued Sir Paul, whose store is a stone’s throw away from the institution, which sits behind Bond Street.
Sir Paul’s decision to stage a presentation during Pitti Uomo, the bi-annual men’s fashion showcase that takes over the narrow streets of Florence, was borne out of sentimentality for all things Italian. “I love being here for Pitti Uomo, because it’s just so real,” said Sir Paul, who has a house in Tuscany and who first came to the Pitti Uomo in 1993. “It’s a city built on craft; in one street there’s a man that sells handmade leather shoes, across the road there’s a man who’s made belts his entire life. It’s a reminder of that wonderful process.”
The collection, however, drew on a distinctly British starting point; the blousy suiting and paint-splattered, after-dark exploits of the roguish painters Francis Bacon, Lucian Freud and Frank Auerbach in Soho in the 1960s.