Eccentric British fashion designer Paul Smith is currently presiding over a rollout of stores across the globe. Following on from the December 2005 opening of a bubblegum-pink store on Melrose Avenue, L.A., last week he was in Tokyo to unveil a four-story flagship in the Aoyama district. Later this year he will oversee the launch of stores in New York's SoHo and Paris' Saint Faubourg.

While other big brands like to keep the interiors of their emporiums as consistent as possible, Smith prefers to tailor each one to its surroundings. The Melrose Avenue location is divided into movie-style sets like a studio lot; a new outlet for his R. Newbold line in Osaka retains the original interior of the Japanese shrine-maker that once occupied the building; an 18th-century town house in the designer's native Nottingham retains many of its period features, despite having been turned into a retail space.

The new Aoyama store, which opened March 10, is also themed around its original function. Its glass and steel shell once served as part of the Idee interior retail chain run by Teruo Kurosaki, godfather of the Tokyo design scene and initiator of the Tokyo Designers Block event. "I've known and admired Kurosaki-san for years, since I first started coming to Japan," explains the tall, silver-haired designer, who is soon to turn 60. "When I heard that he was letting this building go, I said 'I've got to try and get this building to try and keep up the spirit of what he was doing.' So it's a kind of homage to his spirit and energy."

Built in 2000, the 540-sq.-meter structure was once known as Sputnik, and echoing the astronautical theme, its new incarnation is named Paul Smith Space. Freeze-dried space food and flight jackets from NASA pick up the theme in the basement, where they are sold alongside pieces from the Paul Smith Jeans line and a fascinating selection of new and vintage books and magazines.

Another spacey touch is evident on the second floor, which houses quirky but classic clothes from several of the brand's 13 lines of clothes for men, women and children. Here fitting cubicles have a capsule-like look and are roofless so as to impart a sense of "space" even when their doors are closed. In contrast, another fitting room area is decked out like a Parisian boudoir, replete with chaise longue and antique dresser, upon which are placed several pairs of handcuffs.

Smith, who became Sir Paul in November 2000, reckons that the third floor, comprised of a gallery and rooftop garden, is perhaps the most fitting tribute to the great Kurosaki. "One of the great things about him is his willingness to help young, upcoming creative types and so up here we have a space which we're going to let artists and creative people use for free."

The current exhibition is devoted to "The Look: Adventures in Pop & Rock Fashion," an Anglocentric history of rock-star style written by Paul Gorman.

Opening on April 27 is an exhibition of 14 Fritz Hansen chairs, each customized by a famous designer. That show will be followed by a display of photographs from Terence Donovan, a long-standing contributor to British Vogue.

Gallery notwithstanding, for Smith, this new building constitutes a very special project: "There are over 200 Paul Smith stores all over Japan," he says, "But because menswear and womenswear are handled by different companies, administratively it has always been difficult to get them together." The no-nonsense designer has finally managed to cut through all that red tape, and Paul Smith Space offers an unprecedentedly broad overview of what the brand represents. According to Smith, at least, "it really, really is well worth a visit."

While the heavily rock music-oriented bookstore, roof garden and exhibition space do indeed make this an attractive destination even for those who do not consider themselves devotees of the Paul Smith brand, the store is a veritable treasure trove of trinkets from the dapper Brit's extensive travels and flea-market excursions. From Swiss Air in-flight meal trolleys to beautifully beaded evening bags, wacky wind-up toys to Andy Warhol wallpaper, customized Triumph motorbikes to vintage necklaces; myriad curiosities await inspection here.

The endearingly unequivocal and unfailingly modest Smith highlights his love of mismatches and juxtapositions of style by pointing out a shelf facing the bamboo garden at the front of the store. There, expensive Swedish pottery sits next to a plastic Bart Simpson doing a moony right next to a set of gold-plated bunny statuettes.

Despite heading up a business worth almost $600 million, Smith still finds time to have a hand in almost every aspect of the design of his stores. That is the way he has always worked, he says, recalling how he cut the tip of his finger off while building a showroom display many years ago. When not on one of his frequent trips abroad, the 193-cm-tall fashion mogul spends weekend afternoons working on the shop floor in his two London outlets.

The humble, hands-on approach has worked very well, especially in Japan, which accounts for some 80 percent of his company's revenue. "When I first came here in 1982, I took it very seriously and I felt excited and honored to be here," recounts Smith. "At that time the economy here was booming and a lot of designers, in my opinion, were very disrespectful. They wanted to travel first class and be driven around in a chauffeur-driven limo; they saw Japan as just a way to make money without putting in any effort."

While others were vying to tie up with the trendiest companies, Smith plumped for a small tailoring firm from Osaka that he describes as being comprised of "three guys, one of whom spoke a bit of English."

Although not fluent in Japanese, Smith has mastered pleasantries and a few rag trade terms from the vernacular and pronounces place names proficiently. That in itself is a testament not only to the length of time he has invested in Japan, but also to a genuine effort on his part to develop a close connection with his partners here.

"For me," says Smith, "It has always just been a very honest building of a relationship. I've always kept it very down to earth."

Although Paul Smith may be lauded for his honesty, humility and hard work, it is impossible to achieve his kind of pre-eminence as a purveyor of style without a healthy dose of panache. The designer's singularly eclectic worldview is what has won him so many loyal customers all over the world, and this sprawling new store is an ideal place in which to take a little peek at it.