Hello, My Name is Paul Smith, Design Museum

Sir Paul Smith is, in some ways, an unlikely fashion hero. He’s got the air of a friendly tousle-haired inventor rather than the sphinx-like demeanour of say, Karl Lagerfeld. You get the feeling that he’s more at home on a racing bike than at ritzy parties, and by and large, he’s not a fixture in the gossip magazines.

But he does have a claim to be the UK’s tsar of fashion. Endlessly garlanded, he’s relentlessly creative and hence now the star of the Design Museum ’s latest exhibition. Hello, My Name is Paul Smith is a trophy show in advance of the museum’s move next year to the site of the old Commonwealth Institute in Kensington – and it’s also part of a strand that last year featured an exhibition of shoemaker Christian Louboutin – which broke the museum’s visitor figure records.

Smith’s exhibition promises a similar reception. Known for clothes that sit as well in the boardroom as they do in the bar – it’s said the phrase ‘classic with a twist’ was his coinage – Smith started his retail career in Nottingham in 1970. This exhibition has a recreation of his first shop, and also a recreation of his office. It gives us a glimpse into his magpie-like mind: Smith is a gatherer of things, from toys and bike parts to curiosities that have crossed his path, and which admirers have sent to him. There are plenty of his photographs too - he is a keen and published photographer - and reflections on the way he designs. You’ll see some of his collaborations with brands, from cars to bottled water, and photographs of his shop interiors from around the world, of which there are now more than 350.

That’s one of the great Smith successes. While he has a very British vision, drawing from the UK’s sartorial and industrial history, Smith has sold very well abroad, particularly in the Far East. With tradition and craftsmanship at the fore – and that celebrated ‘twist’, of course - he’s the perfect poster boy for how the UK wishes to sell itself to the world.