"Just because we came from a little town didn't mean we did little things," he recalled.
Paul started at John Cobb & Co in April 1945, and to celebrate the end of the war in Europe, a window display of 25 panels of highlights of the war was in construction.
Paul's first job was to draw the big three - Churchill, Stalin and Roosevelt - on a panel each.
When American company Stetson started producing hats in New Zealand after World War II, it had a New Zealand-wide window dressing competition, and John Cobb & Co entered.
Photos of the entries were sent to America to be judged.
Paul remembers going to the bank to cash the £40 first-prize cheque after they had won - that was a lot of money in those days.
During his time, the store had also won first prize in the New Zealand Open window dressing competition which Paul said was "not bad for a town of 6000 people".
Paul wanted a change from Feilding, and on Wellington anniversary day in Feilding in 1958 he went to Hawke's Bay because it was close and open for business.
He met Jack Westerman, son of the founder, who said he would like to employ Paul but there was not an opening.
Paul remembers thinking that he believed Westerman's was stuck in 1928 in terms of its window displays.
Some time later he received a call from Westerman's offering him a job. Paul accepted after more than 13 years working in Feilding, and moved to Hastings with his wife.
"I got there just before blossom time - I had never seen a Blossom Festival before."
In Feilding Paul had looked after 13 windows, but at Westerman's they told him not to worry about the Russell St South windows.
Paul could not understand this because the street was then a bus stop and attracted large foot traffic.
He needed an assistant, because Paul did not do things by halves and found himself often working outside business hours.
For Christmas in his first year at "Westies", as Paul called it, he needed staff to come back at night to help him.
Jack said the staff wouldn't come back - but they did, all unpaid, just like Paul.
Choirboys were hand-made for the front windows and a sound system played Christmas music throughout the store, which was a novelty then.
Victor Westerman, the founder's brother, worked from Westerman's No 2 store, just along Heretaunga St East.
"Victor was apparently quite tight with money, but he approached me and said of the Christmas display: "Mr Franco, I appreciate what you have done" and quietly slipped me a £40 ($1500 in 2017) cheque."
After some frustration at Westerman's he went to another Hastings menswear store, Poppelwell's.
When Pope Paul XXIII died in 1963, Paul said to Harry Poppelwell: "I am not a Catholic - but I need to put in a memorial window for him."
Paul did a drawing of the Pope and had two candles in the display and "people peered out of passing bus windows at the display".
A talented artist, a drawing of Winston Churchill he made in the 1960s sold and now hangs in the Marine Parade Hawke's Bay Club.
Paul was lured back to Westerman's from Poppelwell's and was now able to hire an assistant.
He enjoyed the City Realties era of ownership of Westerman's when they gave him a proper budget with which to work.
Theme-based rather than, say, standard menswear displays were what Paul enjoyed most.
Peter Read (1923-1981) of the New Zealand television show Night Sky looked in on an impressive display on the American space programme in 1976.
"We did a big display inside the store, and a lady in Havelock gave me American coins and we also had a loan of a Hasselblad camera similar to the one that photographed the surface of the moon.
"Peter Read came to the store in 28C heat and was wearing a three-piece suit.
"Like all my promotions, this was designed to get people into the store, that was the idea, and many people had never been upstairs in Westerman's until Peter Read came.
"This makes things - well, it makes people interested - we put on a show and the people loved it - but it was hard work and the display stayed up for two weeks.
"We even had a spoon collection to do with space and one of the employees lent us them."
The secret of Paul's success, he believes, is: "It's got to be right, and by putting a lot of work into it."
Paul's career ended at Hallensteins Shoes (they had shoe stores then) in Tauranga, where he continued his Feilding and Hawke's Bay successes.
While at the store, a Tauranga-wide window dressing competition (at one point common in all New Zealand towns) was held to celebrate a sister-city relationship with Hitachi, Japan.
His store came first as judged by a Japanese man from Hitachi.
Paul linked the two cities by their country maps. He also used authentic Japanese dolls in the display, while some other windows put in Chinese dolls.
He last major win before retiring was when his window took out the New Zealand competition for the Shoe of the Year window display.
"It's been a great life and I was lucky to get into it . . . lucky I could draw and found what I had a knack for."
• Michael Fowler (mfhistory@gmail.com) is part-time heritage officer at the Art Deco Trust and accounting lecturer at EIT Hawke's Bay.
