Sir Paul, 79, first started visiting Japan to develop his label during the early 1980s. There are now around 160 Paul Smith stores in the country, all operated by his longtime partner and licensee Itochu, which also currently owns around 18% of the company. “When I first came here, in the early 80s, it was just extraordinary,” Smith recalls. “So many designers came to Japan and were disrespectful: they treated it as a quick way to make money. For me, it was: wow, Japan! It’s a privilege to be here. The appreciation has always been mutual, and I’ve always felt it.” When, in 1998, he was approached by Mini to create a special edition of 1,800 cars, his popularity in Japan meant that 1,500 of them were sold here. Many of them are still on the road today, and have more than doubled in value.
Twenty-six years later, Smith is once again big (in a Mini) in Japan. As we conduct this interview, Carpool Karaoke-style, he and Hampf showcase the new edition’s details. “This is knitted, recycled and recyclable,” Smith observes of the interior tech-jacquard fabric. “It’s imitating our stripe, what we call the shadow stripe, basically in just black. Then there’s the blue stitching on the leatherwork, the rabbit on the floor mats, the green mirrors — they’re just slightly off-colours, you know? Not typical automotive shades.”
For Mini’s Hampf, the collaboration marks an evolution in how automotive design can absorb external creative languages without losing credibility. “In a collaboration, both sides have to find themselves,” he says. “It cannot be that we push automotive design on Paul, or that we make a fashion statement that would be inauthentic. This is a very tasteful offering with some truth to it, and that, I think, is what matters most.”
Mini has been owned by BMW Group since 1994. At the turn of the millennium, it retired the Alec Issigonis-designed “classic” Mini, first launched in 1959, and in 2001 introduced the new, modernised Mini design. During 2024, BMW Group reported revenues of €142.38 billion. In the first nine months of 2025, BMW sales in Japan increased by 6%, while Mini sales rose 32%.
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