On The Town: Leather bags for men designed by Paul Smith, retailing at €700 in Brown Thomas, have already sold out. Only one of his velvet hand-painted jackets at €1,888 remains. The rest have sold out. Shirts by the designer start at €160.
"They become like collectors' items," explains Paul O'Connor, the store's menswear buying director.
Sir Paul Smith, the designer who opened his first retail design shop in Nottingham in 1970, now has outlets in 39 countries, employing 600 people. He's "one of the world's top five designers of menswear and someone to emulate in terms of career," according to Irish designer Michael Mortell, who has been establishing his own menswear lines over the past three seasons.
He was one of those who attended an exclusive book signing and public interview with Smith at the Brown Thomas shop this week in Dublin.
Other Irish designers in attendance included Louise Kennedy and Ciarán Sweeney.
"I normally work as I go along," says Smith, who travels up to eight months of the year, visiting his design teams, factories and shops around the world.
"I always carry a little notebook. I never sit down. I mean I do, but not a lot."
He visited Dublin to promote his new book about "how I work and about using your eye and your heart to inspire you", entitled You can find inspiration in everything. If you can't, look again.
"It's a very honest book, it's not about how important I am," he said.
Interviewed by Robert O'Byrne, Sir Paul, who coined the "classic with a twist" phrase, was asked what keeps his work fresh.
"I just really love life, it sounds really corny but that's what keeps me coming up with new things all the time," he said.
The beautifully bound Smith book, which is only available at Brown Thomas, retails at €60.