Paul Smith reimagines Picasso

Collaborating with other museums and art institutions is a tradition of the Picasso museum, she says. What makes this exhibition unique is that the artworks were selected by both the museum and internationally renowned fashion designer Paul Smith to reflect Smith's ideas in design and creativity.

In 2019, the French museum invited Smith to serve as its artistic director to offer a new interpretation in commemoration of the 50th anniversary (in 2023) of Picasso's death.

Paul Smith founded his eponymous brand in 1970, beginning with a 9-square-meter shop in his hometown of Nottingham, the United Kingdom. Today, it is a global enterprise with more than 130 stores in 60 countries and regions.

Smith proposes "unusual juxtapositions, and highlights unexpected details", Debray says of the exhibition held at the Musee National Picasso-Paris in 2023. Through the eyes of Smith, "We rediscover a Picasso who was inventive, funny and perpetually experimenting,"Debray says.

"Picasso is a genius, and I'm a modest clothes designer," Smith says in Shanghai. "But if there are any similarities (between us), I would say it's curiosity. He was always looking for new ideas, new things," Smith says. It was the same mindset that kept him afloat in the volatile sea of fashion through the decades, he believes.

When the Picasso museum approached him for the project, "It was just a request to see Picasso through different eyes, through eyes that were not trained in the world of art history or the iconography of art," he tells the media.

He adds: "At the beginning, I honestly didn't know how, and didn't know whether I could do it. Then I just came up with what I'm used to doing, which is color and pattern and relationships between things."