Table Manners with Jessie and Lennie Ware - S4 Ep 8: Sir Paul Smith

Episode Date: November 28, 2018

This week we have a first for Table Manners, Nottingham’s finest, SIR Paul Smith talks to us about his love of early mornings, ‘hospital food’, style, his beloved Pauline and London hotspots. What a treat. (Side note: I was particularly pleased with my dish this week if I say so myself). Sir Paul is served!Produced by Alice Williams Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Hello and welcome to Table Manners. I'm Jessie Ware and I host this podcast with my dear mother. Say hi to your fans mum. Sounded very insincere. You know what? It may be because we've maybe spent a little bit too much time together. We have darling. But I still love you. I'm just worried this podcast might affect our relationship. Well it's really funny because whenever we're not doing the podcast, we don't talk about it.

You don't ever talk to me, darling. You only do this, so I'll talk to you. Yeah. To be honest. We have Paulith on today an absolute style icon and somebody that weirdly a lot of my friends have worked in his establishment or at his shop really yeah crispin titus don't you remember jack's like orange shirt yeah and i always used to buy paul smith socks for christmas because they were so luxurious but also for 21st or 18th birthdays the wallet with the cadillac and the the pin-up lady inside painted on the inside the red wallets um he's our first night is he our first night yeah sir

cbe sick yes sir paul smith that just shows how kind of important he is to the british fashion industry i think his shops are beautiful yes they're so stylish in themselves it's a pleasure to go in on the menu today actually this was editor alice's suggestion it is tapenade roast chicken i think it's quite a french thing and alice is married to a french man and it's it's just you roast the chicken with loads of tapenade and garlic and under the skin well i didn't do it under skin because al told me not to. But I did put the garlic under the skin with some butter and herbs de profance. So I did that. And then we're going to have it with a tomato and ginger salad. Yeah.

Which may not work as well as it would in France when the tomatoes taste better than they do. And the sun is out. Yeah. And then, oh shit, my bean's going to be overdone. Okay, well, I'm back from a disaster of overcooked green beans. Yeah, overcooked green beans. Yeah, which I i'm gonna have to rice done your special microwave rice microwave onion that makes it sound like we've just put

onion in onion and chicken stock a little bit of sunflower oil obviously water salt pepper actually i didn't put pepper and you just put bung it in the microwave 25 minutes yeah i hope it's you're supposed to stir after 10 but it doesn't matter i've done pud i've done a chocolate mousse cake taut not okay why is it why is it a taut because it's like a tart i don't know because it's like a tart with chocolate mousse on is this after you got alex's patisserie valerie um birthday birthday cake and it was chocolate mousse and you thought I think I'll do that no I just wanted to do a quick pud and that seemed to be quite quick and so I've done that and I've brought creme fraiche and raspberries to go with it nice I'm supposed to be being

gluten and sugar free mum on this pregnancy it is low calorie digestives that have gone in the base they've still got gluten. Well, then don't have any, darling. Maybe I won't. Yeah. More for everybody else. Paul Smith coming up on Table Manners. Sir Paul Smith. can we say sir you could say sir if you want but i don't need it i think you're our first sir oh

really oh yeah well i've got all sorts of things after my name. Have you? You can throw the word. Come on, come on. Sir Paul Smith. Yeah. CBE. CBE. Yeah. RDI. What's that?

Royal Designer for Industry. R-I-B-A. What's that? Royal Institute of British Architects. Not that I'm an architect, but I was a guest, a member, a guest member, honorary member. That's the word. Honorary member. And a few others. But anyway, that's okay yeah and a few others but anyway that's the main but you are a style icon you are to me cheers you're my mom my mom's in heaven

yeah yeah i've been a huge fan of yours for ages and if i ever bought a special gift for anyone it was a paul smith well not very it wasn't a suit well that's all right that's what we that's what we love at Paul Smith is we love people so we just we're happy if they just come in obviously we it's nice if they buy things but we're just happy for them to experience your shop because all our shops are different yeah they're all beautiful i have to say so my friend was uh studying textiles um and design and they went round and your shop as a kind of inspiring place to look and see how it's laid out and she remembers a lovely gentleman coming up and saying hi would you like me to show you around and it was you ah there you go yeah and this was i think maybe like early

noughties or like but anyway she just said you were so charming and so proud of your shop and so happy to kind of explain everything to her well i i work in my shop on a saturday afternoon most most saturdays the one in uh i used to be in that one uh and then sometimes in the notting hill gate one love that yeah which is in the old house as you know but now i'm be in that one and then sometimes in the Notting Hill Gate one love that one which is in the old house as you know but now I'm mostly in the one in Albemarle Street which is next to Bond Street near Brown's Hotel

because that's got furniture and ceramics and art as well as clothes so it's really lovely and all the women's wear in there as well Paul can I say how fantastic you look are you in one of your suits it is tv isn't it yeah yeah yeah yeah one of your suits yeah it's beautiful oh good lining yeah but you started the color the the i absolutely did

no he started colored lining for suits. Nobody did it before you. No, honestly, that's true. And all the printed shirts. And the printed, yeah. And also that beautiful wallet that had the Cadillac and the pin-up lady. That was my favourite, favourite. Cheeky boy. Mum's a big fan.

We bought that for 21st presents. And the socks were a treat yeah we sell a lot of socks at christmas all the time yeah oh wow the best socks okay so when you're not wearing paul smith what are you wearing nothing nothing chanel number five yeah yeah well actually probably i should say paul smith fragrance because we do those as well yeah yeah so honest like you just sometimes oh bloody hell are you not sick of yourself a bit i didn't know you did specs yeah those are very nice no i mean i get them free so do you have masses of people working for you now?

We do. About one and a half thousand. In England and abroad? In London we have 200. Yeah. And then in Nottingham, which is where I come from originally, 400. And then 73 countries around the world. Yeah.

Crikey. And lots and lots and lots and lots in japan which is not my business it's a paul smith but it's what they call a licensed business but we have over 200 shops it's amazing so you started off in not you've got a proper nottingham at have i still got it yeah yeah i started in nottingham and then had a tiny tiny tiny little shop there but what what were you what were you trained as nothing I wanted to be a racing cyclist yeah yeah yeah so I was a cyclist until I was 18 and I left school at 15 and then was a run around lad in a warehouse and then I had a bad crash when i was 18 on your bike yeah well the

car one and then um i was in hospital for a long time three months because then they didn't repair things as quickly as they do now you know now they fix things a lot quicker and then when we let when i left there about two other lads that were in hospital at the same time, that we'd been talking to each other across the room, you know, how are you today? You know, he was strapped into one bed and somebody else. We all left at the same time. So they said, why don't we meet up?

Because we all got on so well. So we met up. And luckily for me, they chose a pub in Nottingham where all the art students went and suddenly all these new words and terms came out that you know about artists and Andy Warhol and the pop scene and and this sounds really cool I wonder if whether I could earn a living doing something to do with you know design in some way so one of the girls I met who was a at the school there she just said um I'm sure I'm starting a little shop my dad's setting me up with a little shop will you help me start it so I did I didn't really know anything about getting a lease and

opening a shop and decorating it and running it and doing the window dressing and everything but it was brilliant so i was 18 were you quite a cool dresser then um were you on mod or a rocker uh neither you i was too young bohemian bohemian yeah black polo neck cashmere okay cool 501 Levi's no trench coat no I don't think I could afford that and Nello and David boots now you probably

don't know what that means there's a shoe and boot maker in London yes I do and they made the boots

for the Beatles and they were amazing with a slight Cuban heel little zip on the inside very soft leather

so black leather boots 501s black cashmere polo neck long hair and then eventually hippie of course and you know like we all do you still get into your 501s um i i do paul smith ones now you see i'm not i'm not allowed to wear 501 i probably could still get them i don't know do you do Polonex as well yeah we do Kashmir

yeah of course yeah lovely we do lots of lovely knitwear and they do everything mum like they do mortgages

yeah yeah do you want one yes please I was going to say we a good friend of ours he used to work

at your conference garden and I even remember it was like the coolest actually I've had two friends that worked at yours we, a good friend of ours, he used to work at your, conference garden, and it, I even remember, it was like, the coolest, actually I've had two friends, that worked at yours,

and they were always, the coolest guys that I knew. that's nice. Crispin and Titus, and they always, I mean it was great, because, like they tell us,

when the sample sale was going on, or whatnot. So I think my husband, actually was in a whole, Paul Smith suit, for his, mum and dad's wedding, which he hadn't got tailored at all and probably could still fit.

Well, we people love our suits. I mean, they were beautiful. But just I remember it felt like quite a scene and it was like the coolest. But it wasn't like just having a Saturday job at a shop. And it was where you wanted to be. It was like being at the pub or like the best bar but these people were so nice and it was such a great atmosphere and i i can imagine you have some input you had some input in the kind of the mood of the yeah definitely i mean we still get lovely visitors you know all the time to the shops and to where i work as well and uh so yeah david bowie of course was a huge customer

in floral street and uh zeppelin all those old guys you know like zeppelin uh stones two of the beatles and then later on more now people you know your age you know jack jake bug and all that you know a lot of the ones today so we're still really close to the uh to the industry of uh your world yeah i've actually have never worn paul smith but jesse's very excited and you have this new yeah the tuxedo yeah yeah i mean the we we started uh clothes for women about 20 years ago and um and that was because women were buying the smaller sizes yeah yeah and there was a famous editor called grace coddington who was uh just used so much of paul smith men's but on on all those famous uh superstar like linda evangelista

and all those you know famous models and then and then they kept saying oh will you come you please do them for for women you know and so the first collections were were just very masculine and that's something I've always liked because Pauline you know my my girlfriend at the beginning and now my wife for many years uh she she's always got that androgynous look and she was like that boyish look i mean she wears dresses and was she a model no she's just great how did you meet uh well when when i was working in the shop uh in nottingham i was still close to the art school in nottingham so I knew they always used to have events and parties and things and then I met her she was she was teaching there she's old she's

six years older than me so she was she had two kids in London she was living in London then she used to go two days a week to Nottingham and then we met and uh i went out with the married lady she's still married uh she was married with two kids two dogs and two cats and i was living at home with my mum so you're still together so it was yeah that was so it was real love yeah that i mean we've been together i can't tell you how long because it's a long time very long time so it was real real love yeah yeah we didn't get married

till the year 2000 actually the day I got knighted you got married that day yeah but completely by chance yeah what came in first the proposed

like the date of the wedding she wanted to get married after being together for a hundred years yeah she wanted to get married and then we arranged the date and married and then um we arranged

the date and everything and then i got this little letter pop through the door with the gas bill and it was from the queen saying uh oh we'd quite like to make you a night and so eventually i said yeah i wasn't sure at the beginning then i said yes and then um one of the girls at work said you know we really ought to find out when it is because you're busy all the time. And then she rang Buck House. And then she put the phone down. She said, you're never going to believe it. Get knighted at 11 o'clock and married at 4 o'clock on the same day.

Oh, my gosh. You didn't. On the same day. So she became a lady in the afternoon. Oh, did she become a lady? Yeah. Of course she does. She's Lady Smith. Ohith oh my god that's so cool lady smith well what did you have for food at the wedding uh i think one of the first time or the other time nicholas solota the boss of the tate modern

let us have a room up there so like the members bit yeah so the ivy did it for us yeah is the ivy one of your favorite places um it was then but i haven't been for years now and jeremy and chris you know that owned owned the ivy they they were friends they were at the wedding so they sorted it all out what did you use to order at the ivy uh and i can't remember the fish pie was always good and the fish cakes fish cakes yeah definitely the fish cakes I still like fish cakes harrods do good fish cakes harrods do they

it's a really weird place to go but yeah they do so are you a fish man I do eat meat but I mostly eat fish oh bloody hell we were going to do a boule base and then you thought it's a bit of a weird one to do well yeah and also it's that thing of like you really have to be into fish yeah otherwise they're people yeah well it's quite fiddly as well and i've got white shirt okay fine well last time i had it was in cassis in the south of france which i think yeah i mean

we weren't going to top that to be honest so so okay talking about food yeah you grew up in nottingham yeah what was the food around the dinner table kind of a regular meal yeah because you know i was a gift from god were you yeah yeah yeah yeah why well because my brother is 11 years older my sister is eight years older and then that was supposed to be it i love that you don't call it an accident you call it a gift from god that's brilliant i'm the same i was the same jesse yeah and then uh so you know i'm the food actually was quite basic you know roast beef on a sunday with yorkshire pudding yeah we used to eat rice pudding you know northern more northern things you know rice just like ambrosia like tinned rice pudding no darling my mum used to make it with

skin on top oh I love the skin and jam yeah yeah so it was very basic very basic the food and it was only really Pauline that managed to uh you know make me a bit more sophisticated well she she uh born born and bred in London uh one of the first uh students uh to go I mean she was only 18 when she went to the Royal College of Art really and I think they normally go later so she was she was pretty pretty bright girl does she draw paint or she's ceramic she studied fashion and and then she was my teacher at home so she came to live with me in nottingham and uh with the whole the two afghan hows the long-haired cats and uh and a five-year-old and an eight-year-old and um and then at home on the table rather similar to the one we're sitting here we used to cut out the patterns

and she taught me how to make suits and how to make things and then also I went to night school a bit for tailoring because what we specialize in is tailoring and that's hence the tuxedo collection that's coming out you know this soon I think I've always liked that sort of boyish look on a girl i think it's really fits in with my the suit is is fantastic and especially now it's

really interesting we've noticed a lot of the red carpet girls are wearing previously have been wearing very you know slinky uh beautiful long dresses now we've had a lot of people asking for not just the tuck suit but just suits generally i feel the best in a suit in a trouser suit i feel the best i can feel i feel there's something i almost feel like i'm not myself when i'm in a dress there's something i would have worn a suit to my wedding but i couldn't in greece so it was a bit too hot got my red and green yeah yeah is pauline a good cook very nice yeah very simple she likes very simple food so so what sort of food would you eat uh a simple white fish with some olive oil on top and three veg that's it and then you're very slim oh thanks yeah do you watch no i think i've just you're just born like that um i've always eaten sort of in a simple way really

yeah and obviously being uh i swim every day for instance do you wear uh the royal automobile club in rac yeah yeah in the palma palma palma isn't it yeah i swim at five most mornings The Royal Automobile Club in Pal-Mal. Yeah, yeah. In Pal-Mal or Mal. Pal-Mal. Pal-Mal, isn't it? Yeah. I swim at five most mornings. Five in the morning? I was swimming this morning at five.

What time are you up then? Just before five. Well, it takes me about 10 minutes to get to the pool. Why do you get up so early? I love the mornings. No traffic. Okay. I love the sun coming up.

I love the fact London's... I used to remember coming up i love the fact london's i used to remember london more affectionately when it was not so busy but now it's so crowded all the time here that we were worried getting here today we just think it took so long to do about you know half a block yeah that's american isn't it block so what time what time do you go to bed then uh nine ish ten ish last night was about 10 past 10 so you go to bed early last night yeah yeah I don't think that's early I like I'm I'm with you I mean I went to bed at 12 30 last night what were you doing watching tv well I didn't finish working really till about half past eight or nine. No, I mean, I've done all that, you know, for years and years, you know. And Pauline and I, you know, travelled a lot.

And so we did the whole Studio 54 era. Pauline and I were nocturnal for a long time. So did you go to Studio 54? Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. Luckily, Pauline has a beautiful smile. So she always got us into... Ah! Because it was always...

Oh, yeah, they pick and choose. Yeah, no, no, there was always this enormous crowd outside, and she had an Yves Saint Laurent red fox fur coat. Yves Saint Laurent red fox fur coat. She has red hair and an amazing smile. And my two friends and myself, we used to hide behind her. And she'd be like there, like this. And they would go, like, point and then just beckon.

And then we'd be hiding behind her. But you were a successful designer by then? No, not then. No, okay. No, 76. So I hadn't even had a collection then. What was it like it was amazing yeah with woody allen warhol yeah lisa manelli uh everyone who's ever felt evening issey miyaki evening

um well i can't remember calvin klein and who i know calvin um yeah a lot of that yeah it was amazing so i've done my nocturnal bit. Now I do my go-to-bed-earlier bit. Do you have a dog? No. Now, I just wonder whether you'd walk the dog early in the morning. Well, we used to have two Afghans, so we all looked exactly the same. All over their hair.

Big nose and long hair. Yeah, so we're all identical. So you walk to the RAC? No, I go in my car a little mini uh and you can park of course yeah yeah it's fantastic and then i get to work about six and it's fantastic you're the first in the office i presume apart from the cleaners and luckily they don't speak any english so it's fine because they don't bother me you know and what time do you finish work six that's a long day yeah yeah i love it though

but you love it oh it's marvelous so privileged humbled by my existence it's fantastic and i wanted to know what was it like growing up what kind of you you fell in love with a woman who had two children pauline yeah and then you, your life kind of changing quite drastically. But amazingly. But, you know, you had to bring up two young kids. I had an instant family. Renter family. Have you ever, have you had any more kids? No, no.

One was five, one was eight. Now they've both got children. You know, it was, it wasn't that hard work because actually there wasn't that much gap between us, one was 8 and I was 21 so you're very young so we were very light minded

to take on children but I've always been full of love of life blessed with having the love of life so every day is very positive no problem so we got on, all got on really well um one of them got involved in the business for about 20 years but then he left and uh he's doing some acting now and then pauline taught me everything i know but she was at the royal college when they were teaching yeah she's good she's quite shy is she shy

you're not shy no because i'm that's probably why she's shy no you're very warm because i talk to talk to you um she was at the royal college yeah she took she was at the royal college when they were still doing couture fashion so that means still making to fit your body shape and uh how to how you made things beautifully so she taught me about pad stitching and how you make a lapel roll and how you put a sleeve head in and the importance of proportion and scale and what's inside is is as important as what's outside so that's why our suits have always been you know really popular because they fit really well and they're so comfortable to wear because we do something called a loose canvas inside so when you move it moves so it's very it'd be good for you

because you know you just move and and they it's just really comfortable to wear so would you kind of say that Paul Smith the brand brand, is both of yours? It's both your brand? Well, I would definitely not be here today without Pauline. Definitely not. But she's not been involved in the business for years and years and years. The first four collections, we call them collections rather than ranges. The first four collections, so that's eight.

Eight. Spring, summer, autumn, autumn winter so like eight collections four years um she designed not me because i didn't have the confidence to do it and then she suddenly said she wanted to pursue her love of history of art so then she went to university to study history of art and then she liked drawing anyway she could draw then she went to a school called Byam Shor School of Art and then she went on to the Slade School of Art to paint so she did her own thing doing that and then I got the job of designer So then I had to suddenly get on with it.

Some of your go-to London restaurants that you go to. Yes. Where would you go? Well, right near our office is the Delorne. I love the Delorne. I love the Delorne. I love the Delorne. Owned by Chris Corbin and Jeremy King. We like the Bellinger as well.

Yeah, in Islington. Yeah. And then, of course, they've got the Colbert. Colbert I love. And I love the Wolseley. For a cocktail, you can't but Wolseley. And anybody who's travelled to, you know, Austria or any of those areas where they have those big brasseries the Wolseley is so authentic it's really good amazing especially when you get

the coffee with the little tray yeah at the end and the glass of water and they they spoon upside down yeah it was all Alsace isn't it yeah what do you what do you order when you're at the Delorne uh the Delorne if we could fish yeah yeah if we go for lunch we probably have the chopped chicken salad without red peppers yes you don't like red peppers I love them they don't like me oh really yeah red and green peppers when did you find this out anduline's exactly the same oh you too so perfect you don't go to mexico for your tacos no we've been to mexico but we have to choose very carefully there or in or india you know when we've been to india which you've you've come find things where's like

your favorite local that you go to eat at like if you just kind of you know there's one there's place called clark's in kensington church street that we go to owned by somebody called sally clark and uh that's she only does like three starters three mains three puddings and so consequently everything's fantastic obviously uh the food from ottilenghi is lovely we love we love him here yeah yeah and we tend to buy the food and have it at home. Or just like the salads. Yeah, or the two slices of roast beef and, you know, something like that. Yeah.

And lovely haricot verre as well, like you've got here. Oh, look at that. Well, look look it's not should we tell you what we're having because um it's not it's not fancy it's actually they look good well yeah to be honest there's some overcooked beans in there but there's also some undercooked yeah so you'll get a crunch and they're kind of really pathetic one um basically chicken darling would you mind cutting the chicken mom we're doing we've got roast chicken that's going to kind of be it's kind of very light and not piping hot um but it's with tapenade black olive oh nice and um like herbs to performance with some salads and then we've got some onion rice that i'm trying to dry out because i think it was a bit stodgy that i did. So it's very low-key.

Don't worry. It looks amazing. Are you a sweet or a savoury person? Personally, I'm a sweet person. And a little espresso coffee after lunch with one little square of something. Oh. We can do that for you. It may be a slice of something. Even better.

We've got a chocolate mousse tarte. Oh, that sounds wonderful. Yeah, will that work? It might be, it might not. But we've got that, and we'll make an espresso for sure. So, you say you don't really do the cooking at home. No. But if you were going to try and impress us, what's Paul Smith's dish?

The nickname for it is ospidale, which means hospital food. Right. Ospidale. Ospidale. And it's simple pasta, penne pasta, cooked with butter and sage. Lovely. And parmesan. I think that sounds great and i have loads of sage in the gardens maybe i'll do it well it's um do you deep fry your steak sage or do you

like fry your sage up so yeah you put it in the pan and then uh with butter yeah sounds oil or butter yeah and just harden it off and then we did a big event in japan which was in a place with that had a restaurant as well and so they said what food would paul like yeah you know on the menu let's do his his menu and we did that and it was so popular because the japanese you know just found it very nice and easy to eat. That's so nice. Yeah that was good. What else was on the menu? Hedge salad. What's a hedge salad? I just said a nickname but it was rocket, you know, so I called it hedge because it looks like hedge. The Japanese thought it was hilarious because they know what is hedge table

manners table manners do you think you have good table manners very much I think I think so not that I was watching no thank you you know posture is one of the most important things. I'm going to go and sort the dessert. Okay fine. Oh yeah. What's your I feel like you're too nice and you're going to be like oh I don't mind but we just ask everybody

if there's one table manner that really drives you up the wall that you see in another person what is it? when people leave their knife or fork apart okay oh I know

because I think it's really unfair on the waiter or the waitress because how do they know you've finished that's it Sir Paul the considerate diner well it's so important to remember

that the staff and it's so fantastic if you go to a restaurant in America often the waiter absolutely doesn't want to be doing that job and then will tell you that they are really an out-of-work actor or something not always of course when you go to certain places in say France or Italy that's what they do and they do it all

their life and they're very proud of it it's fantastic fantastic. This is what I do. I'm a waiter. It's a career, isn't it? Isn't that great, though, that people are satisfied enough with that? Because there's so many other people that are very ambitious. So the balance is right then. It's really good.

We've got a little bowl, darling. What is a bowl? Food and fresh. Okay, darling. Paul, do you mind that that is not in a bowl? I do not. little bowl, darling. What is a bowl? Food and fresh. Okay, darling. Paul, do you mind that that is not in a bowl? I do not. Thank you, Paul. You're just sucking up to guessing.

And I can't eat all of that. Okay. Well. Who knows? Would you like me to put some coffee on for you? You'd like an espresso? I'd love one, but only if you don't mind. I'll get it now, of course.

Yeah, it's just one of those bloody Italian ones that takes forever, so I'm sorry. There you go. Oh, look at that forever, so I'm sorry. Here you go. Oh, look at that. Right. I'm going to try this. Mum, this is really good. Do you like it? Yeah, I do.

Let me. I'm about to try it. Oh, here we go. Here we go. Give us your best Greg Wallace now. It's a bit bitter. I like the bitterness, though. What do you think?

Do you want to fanfare? Yeah. No, darling. I like that biscuit crumb. The biscuit's great. I shouldn't be eating it, but it's great. Oh, it's very good. What's the biscuit?

Is it just digestive? Yeah, digestive with chocolate in. Wow. What, you put the chocolate in? Yeah, you melt chocolate. Dark chocolate. It's really good, Mum. Good, darling.

You put the chocolate in? Yeah, you melt the chocolate. It's really good, Mum. Good, darling. What would be your last supper? Have you asked this already? Oh, my ospedale. Ospedale. Ospedale?

Yeah, me... That would be your last supper? Yeah. No, but you're allowed a starter and a main... Ah, well, I love the sage, though, so much. I think sage is such a nice thing. Yeah, it is delicious. I'd probably have a puntarella.

Is it puntarella? You know, the Italian salad. Puntarella. Anyway, I'll have that. It's a leaf. It's a leaf. I'd just have that with some olive oil and a bit of balsamic. And then, I don't know what I'd have for pudding, really.

Maybe one of those naughty Portuguese custards. Oh I love that. That are chewy. Yeah. I know. I love those. Goldborne Road. Yeah oh Goldborne Road. I haven't actually had them on Goldborne Road yet. We've got our own little Portuguese place. That's the lightest last supper that we've ever had. Oh is it? Yeah. But I like it. You knew what you wanted straight away. Lots of them like sweaty vongole. Oh really? Yeah. It's a bit messy though if you're not very well. What is your last supper? Oh you're thinking, okay so you're thinking if you're not very well. Okay, we sometimes we pitch it as you're going off to a desert island. Right. So you're not, nobody's really gonna give a shit if you've got a bit of vongole on your shirt. No, no no that's true oh i accept that i am a clothes designer do you like do you take pride in your appearance every day or do you ever have a day where you put jogging bottoms on i presume they are paul smith i haven't got any jogging bottoms oh really so

you dress like this i wear suits every day i love suits I adore suits I wear them with trainers or the white t-shirt or sometimes a jean with a suit jacket on Sunday because they're so comfortable our suits tell me who do you think is one of the best dressed men in the world gosh that's quite hard I mean or you like their style I mean I I'm a mate of daniel day lewis and and he dresses really well does he i'd like to be a mate of daniel day lewis i'll tell you that but has he got he's gone into seclusion yeah yeah well he always does that yeah often does that yeah i've known him for years and so he'll come out i think he might not this time why he just uh he wants peace and quiet yeah he likes he likes solitude yeah did you like did you see the film where he was what was it called phantom thread phantom thread where

he was the designer he worked in our uh atelier for a week to get it he's a method actor isn't he and then he went off to work in couturier in new york as well for longer he was only with us for a few five days i think just to learn the terms you know about they're not scissors they're shears and you know like uh egg-eyed between which is a needle egg-eyed between needles much quicker to say isn't it do you still do those wallets with the Cadillac with the pinup

do you know where that came from idea there was one of the American political parties in the 50s I don't know which one were trying to get people to wear their ties which is blue and blue with a white polka dot i think because then it was like promotion because you

know all these guys would have blue and white ties on and uh and they'd say oh you're a democrat or whatever it was so the story's not true so far but they but the reason why they persuaded them to wear it was because underneath they'd have a pinup on the tie yeah and and that was like it was like this little yeah so it was like this little it was like this little you know yeah you know it's boy stuff yeah you know there's a lovely story because over the years we've sold to so many uh famous people and politicians and all sorts of things and a lot of the prime ministers over the years like cameron and blair you've dressed them yeah and and their their stylists used to run in and and uh get clothes for them and uh blair was off to see bush in america So the stylist ran in and got loads of things,

including some white shirts. And then when Blair put his white shirt on to meet Bush, he's got a little pinup printed on the inside of his car. Oh, how funny. And the stylist hadn't realised, because I did a few like that. So that was nice and funny. How funny. I just want to thank you so much for

coming oh cheers and bringing some beautiful flowers and being such good fun and just it's been such a pleasure to talk thank you very much and what nice grub thank you girls good and very nice to talk to you both i feel like you need to take some home for pauline but would she would she eat it probably not oh okay fair enough Pauline's is slim she can still wear Portsmouth suit what a lovely man absolutely a delight wasn't he tall jesse and but humble humble but tall imposing engaged love life he just sounds like he's having so much fun. Yeah. Loved people. Yeah. Real people person. Didn't eat that much, but I think he enjoyed it.

He went for seconds on the tomatoes. Yeah, and he did eat all my chocolate tart. He did like your chocolate tart. And he did, he's so slim. Well, yeah. It's probably because he had the size of my child's portion. But I realised it could have been, the whole outfit could have been called Pauline Smith. Yeah yeah he loved pauline she sounded great red eve sanluron fox fur coat with red hair and a glowing smile outside studio 54 that's a look jesse yeah thank you so much sir paul smith cbe riba mbe everything such a pleasure to have you on

really lovely gentleman i want to wear some paul smith now yeah definitely i just thought he was lovely really nice to meet him the food was really good jesse did so well well we've got to thank editor alice because it was her it was her suggestion so but that is a winner so easy easy and a winner no offense alice it was so easy but yeah so effective going in the cookbook going in the cookbook and going to be that kind of weeknight roast chicken that you could do and impress i think that was a more than a week night that was a alfresco lunch that was definitely an alfresco lunch yeah i like that and i have to say you smacked it out of the park with your chocolate torte who knew i could make desserts i know you've really like you now are a i've had to up my game that's really good mum yeah given that i don't really like desserts

you ate it i ate a bit It was a bit bitter for me. You liked it. No, I liked it, Mum. You like dark chocolate, though. I do. You know, I'm a galaxy or dairy milk girl. Thank you for listening to Table Manners, and thank you, Sir Paul Smith. Mum, do you remember my friend at school called Maisie Claytor?

Yeah, little and blonde. Yeah. She has done a podcast she has a beautiful son called Charlie who is four and I think at four he was diagnosed with autism and quite severe autism she decided to do a podcast on it and she's interviewed the likes of Kathy Lett who also has an autistic child and different different mothers and parents really important um about living with autism and it's a really beautiful podcast i've been listening to and i'm really proud of maisie and charlie and it seems like it's been a really tough year for them both um so i just wanted to

kind of give her a shout out and also just say to people to have a little listen to the podcast yeah so the podcast is called autism and us the music you've listened to on table manners is by peter duffy and pete fraser and table manners is edited by the wonderful alice williams