Sir Paul Smith's "Threads" Finally Lands in the US

Sir Paul Smith's first true memoir hits American shelves today, two months after UK readers got it, tracing fifty-five years from a twelve-by-twelve-foot Nottingham shop to a label with stores in more than 60 countries.

By Kyle Duford, Founder & Editor•Nov 10, 2026•5 min read

Sir Paul Smith's "Threads" Finally Lands in the US — Stock photo of assorted sewing thread; not official book or brand imagery.

Sir Paul Smith's first true memoir, Threads, lands on American shelves today, two months after UK readers already got their copies. The 336-page hardback comes from Pan Macmillan at $30.99, co-written with journalist Richard Williams (Threads).

The book traces a run most fashion executives would envy: a twelve-by-twelve-foot shop Smith opened in Nottingham in 1970, at 23, has grown into a label running more than 130 stores across over 60 countries, and he still holds the majority even after selling Itochu a 40 percent stake in 2006 (Sir Paul Smith)). He left school at 15 with undiagnosed dyslexia, and a serious accident at 17 ended his hopes of racing bikes professionally and put him in a hospital bed where he first got pulled into art and fashion instead.

Threads covers dressing David Bowie, Daniel Day-Lewis, Giorgio Armani, and Sir Alex Ferguson, meeting his wife and early design partner Pauline Denyer at 21, and a habit he has kept his entire career: working the shop floor every Saturday. Smith has said he hopes readers find the book "charming, honest and inspiring," and joked that fifty-five years in business could have filled a much heavier book, but the team kept it manageable so readers would not strain their backs. The audiobook is narrated by his friend Bill Nighy and includes a Q&A between the two of them.

That restraint is the whole brand on the page. Smith built a global label on "classic with a twist," a signature too modest to turn into spectacle, and a memoir that refuses to turn fifty-five years into a doorstop is just that same restraint, applied to a bookshelf. Most heritage labels this size got folded into a conglomerate decades ago. A knighted designer who still mans his own shop floor on Saturdays, and still owns the majority of what he built, is a harder flex than anything LVMH could buy.