Sir Paul Smith, the doyen of British fashion, is flailing around in his office with two large rubber chickens and making them squeak them with gusto. "The chickens are the reason I was successful in Japan," he explains. "I've been working in Japan since 1982.
And when I first went there, there was one person who spoke schoolboy English. So, it was very much about communicating through gesture, drawings, but also humour." "So, if I was a bit tired at four o'clock in the afternoon, I used to just go into my bag and go..." "And then everybody collapsed with laughter." It certainly did the trick. Almost 45 years, later there are more than 20 Paul Smith stores in Japan, part of a global empire spanning 50 countries.
Sir Paul has invited BBC News to spend an afternoon with him at his London HQ to talk about his new autobiography Threads: My Life in Style. First, he is showing us what he jokingly calls his "minimalist executive suite" where he is surrounded by huge piles of gifts and curiosities, which he is sent every day by fans. "For about 45 years, I've been receiving interesting things from a fan in America, and this is one of the latest ones," he says gesturing to a plastic goose covered in stamps with his address written on the side - continuing the plastic poultry theme.
"They always arrive without a box and there's no message so we're not really sure who they're from." He picks out a few more favourites from what looks like the most jumbled of jumble sales, including a clockwork toy drummer, nativity scenes made out of nuts, and the bike Chris Froome won the Tour De France on. And every morning, after his 0530 swim, he writes a thank you postcard to everyone who has included an address. "Good manners is really important in business, especially for longevity," he reflects.
In many ways, this scene is a perfect example of what has made Sir Paul Smith's career such a stellar one - it represents his enthusiasm for life, combined with his knowledge of what is needed to succeed. These are themes which he investigates in Threads, which tells the tale of how his ambitions to be a professional cyclist were ended by a crash at the age of 17, leading him to explore the world of fashion. He opened his first shop - a tiny, windowless store in Nottingham - in 1970.
"The first day I took £38, and my dear lovely wife bought most of it just to please me," he recalls. The decision to write the book was partly inspired by turning 80 and wanting to pass on advice to those wanting to follow him into fashion. "I get so many students here, they think, 'I need a fashion show, two shops, a million pounds and everything'.
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