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On October 5, Waseda University’s East-West Center for Research into Culture and Aesthetics hosted a lecture with fashion designer Paul Smith titled “Paul Smith’s Inspiration.” Okuma Auditorium was at full capacity and many visitors who had hoped to hear from Smith were unable to attend. To give these people a chance to participate, Smith held a second lecture later that night. Approximately 2,500 students and guests enthusiastically listened in on his lectures.

In his lectures, Smith humorously discussed what it takes to create something that grabs people’s attention in today’s society and how to generate the inspiration necessary to accomplish such a task.

Smith presented a picture of his office, which is filled with various objects, and told the audience that they must closely look around their surroundings in order to strengthen their imagination. He also explained  how certain decisions can impact the rest of one’s life.

Smith had some very important messages to tell his audience.

“Make room to break the rules. Don’t always go down the obvious route. Think about ‘what if I did this?’ Challenge yourself to have new ideas.”

“You can find inspiration in anything – in art, in music, in architecture. Travel is fantastic. One of the most inspirational things is traveling and seeing how other cultures are living and working.”

“In my opinion, everything is looking the same around the world. We need to make more effort….By taking the same product, but thinking about it in a different way, then you can have success, or you may not have success….It could be your CV, it could be your exam paper…it could be anything. This is just an example of effort. It’s up to your generation to please try and do things differently – try to do things independently and try to make a big effort.”

Smith’s lecture was a powerful reminder of the importance of finding inspiration and pursuing the possibilities open to all of us.