Interview: Meet In The Style’s Adam Frisby – a CEO with influence

Now, Frisby is about to become a star of the small screen himself, as his new six-part documentary, Breaking Fashion, will be aired on BBC this Wednesday.

“It’s very surreal,” says Frisby, who admits he was hesitant to do the series at first. But he decided it was too good a chance to pass up.

“I thought it would be a really good opportunity for the business. It’s an opportunity to talk about my story and what I’ve built with In The Style.”

From Whoppers to womenswear

Frisby’s story is a remarkable one.

He says he had a ”difficult upbringing”. His parents moved overseas when he was aged 13, which meant he missed a lot of school and was unable to sit his GCSEs.

In the years that followed, he says he felt like he was “a step behind” his peers. “All my friends had gone off to college and seemed to know what direction they were going,” he says.

Frisby’s working life started out flipping burgers at Burger King and he got “a buzz out of earning money and trying to succeed”. Within a year, he’d worked hard enough to become one of the fast food chain’s youngest area managers.

Stints in banking and recruitment followed, but his budding career had a hiatus when he left work to look after his brother, who was left blind by a car accident.

After nursing him back to health, Frisby went to work for a charity that helped people with disabilities to get back into work.

Fashion foray

It’s a career path that sounds far removed from the online fashion empire he has gone on to build. Frisby only entered that world when a cut in government funding led to him being made redundant from the charity in 2013. Armed with a £1,000 payout, he started his own fashion business.

Frisby paid his boyfriend’s sister £50 to build a website, bought six dresses from a wholesaler he found on the internet, and In The Style was born.

Although social media was always important to Frisby, back then he drummed up business by printing leaflets and handing them out around Manchester city centre.

But Frisby had bigger plans for his new business. He spotted an opportunity to build a brand that linked the worlds of celebrity, social media and fashion.

He saw that celebrity-obsessed young people were flocking to social platforms such as Instagram to see what stars were wearing – and were racing to buy the same items.

After a few months of trading, he started to, in his own words, “hound” celebrity agents.

Frisby eventually scored a meeting with Lauren Pope, a star of The Only Way is Essex (TOWIE), to discuss developing her own fashion range.

Enthused by his passion and the opportunity to truly design a collection, rather than just put her name on something, Pope agreed.

“She probably thought I was a bit further on than I was. I was still sat in my flat packing parcels,” he laughs.

From that point onwards, the trajectory of In The Style changed.

“It gave us a good kick, and helped with press and social media. The range did really well and from that point on it’s been ‘what’s next, what’s next?’.”

Frisby had discovered a formula that worked: celebrity-designed fashion ranges that stars promote on their own social channels.

He was quick to sign up more influencers and celebrities to create their own range. Crosby, Made In Chelsea’s Binky Felstead, TOWIE’s Billie Fairs, actress Emily Atack – the list goes on.

In The Style takes a different approach to celebrity collaborations, according to Frisby.

Its collaborators take an active role in designing the range, and rather than being paid an upfront fee, the celebrities get a percentage of sales.

“It was very organic,” he says. “Charlotte wore something because she helped design it and wanted to wear it. It wasn’t a paid thing.”

Frisby says this approach leads to long-term relationships. He cites how Crosby, who is now one of his best friends – those that follow the chief executive on Instagram will see many a video of the pair downing shots together – has worked with the brand for five-and-a-half years.

Influencer collaborations are still core for In The Style, but it has concentrated on growing its own-brand sales, too. This now accounts for 50% of sales.

Profitable growth

The dual approach is clearly working. In The Style now has a team of 140 people at its Manchester base and is on track to make £40m this year, up from £30m in 2018.

“My aim is to get be a £100m business over the next two-to-three years and become a recognised international brand”

Adam Frisby, founder, In The Style

Frisby admits it’s difficult to maintain the impressive growth rate.

“I wish it was as easy as doubling sales every year. We’ve grown very organically. If you’re a cash-rich business, absolutely, throw the money at TV and billboards and you’ll get the sales in, but you’re loss-making at the same time. For us, it’s always been about growing profitably,” he says.

He points out how the tough times experienced by bigger online rivals recently show how quickly things can change.

“Asos being down on profits and Missguided losing a lot of money last year shows how tough the market can become. It opens up your eyes and shows that anything can happen and you shouldn’t take anything for granted,” he says.

Have we reached peak influencer?

In The Style was built on influencer marketing, but Frisby admits that this area is now overcrowded and brands are spending eyewatering amounts on tie-ups.

“It’s very saturated right now, both across influencers and celebrity marketing. When I started this business, paid posts weren’t a thing,” he says.

“It’s difficult to compete with brands that are all over television, all over the billboards and paying a lot of money for influencers.

“It’s harder now than ever to break through when there’s so many influencers and so much cash being thrown around.”

However, he insists there is still room in the market for brands such as In The Style that “do things organically”.

He cites his partnership with last year’s Love Island winner Dani Dyer as an example: “I went head to head with every brand out there and we didn’t pay money. That’s not how our partnerships work.

“Dani loved the brand and wanted to work for us. That was a real moment when I thought there’s still a world out there that is not about money.”

There is a scrum around this year’s Love Island contestants with the Boohoo Group signing up many of the new stars.

Miss Pap - which Boohoo bought out of liquidation earlier this year - spent £1m to secure winner Amber Gill as a brand ambassador, Pretty Little Thing inked a £500,000 deal with Molly Mae Hague, Boohoo signed up Maura Higgins, while BoohooMan snapped up Tommy Fury.

Frisby has stayed clear of the feeding frenzy. “I don’t want to be a brand that just pays someone a fee because they’ve come out of a show. Last year, with Dani, I knew straight away that she had great values and was real and genuine,” he says.

“This year, there were a couple of people we loved, but because of the kind of money that is thrown around, it wasn’t one for us to get involved in.

“The decisions that we take have to be sensible. If other businesses invest £20m and it goes wrong, they have family that can reinvest. If I spend £20m and it goes wrong, I have no business.

“Everything we do is smaller steps, which makes it frustrating, as it’s harder to go as quickly as other brands out there, but at the same time we can’t lose as much money.”

£100m sales target

In The Style, however, does have bold expansion plans in place. Supported by ex-Missguided chief financial boss Paul Masters, who is chief operating officer at In The Style, Frisby’s next mission is cracking international.

Currently, 10% to 15% of sales come from overseas, but In The Style has been building websites in the US, Europe and Australia, and is now deciding which region to focus on first.

“The decisions that we take have to be sensible. If other businesses invest £20m and it goes wrong, they have family that can reinvest. If I spend £20m and it goes wrong, I have no business.”

Adam Frisby, founder, In The Style

He plans to stick with the same plan that’s worked so far and use influencers to crack international territories. The business is already working with a couple of European influencers “to get the brand out there”.

“My aim is to get be a £100m business over the next two to three years and become a recognised international brand,” he says.

The fast-growing brand has already attracted interest from private equity, with Livingbridge taking a sizeable minority stake in the business in 2017. Could an exit be on the cards?

The fast-growth brand has already attracted interest from private equity, with Livingbridge taking a sizeable minority stake in the business in 2017. Could an exit on the cards?

Frisby is coy: “Lots of people say, what’s your plan? Do you want to get more investment or to sell the business or carry on forever? I genuinely don’t know. Right now, I’m happy doing what I do. In The Style is my baby.”

Frisby’s baby will take centre stage when Breaking Fashion airs this week. He wants the documentary – which he says is “very real and very honest” – to help inspire people with his story and share advice on how to build a business from scratch.

“I don’t want it to come across that I know everything or I’m great, but I’ve gotten some insight over the past six years that can be really helpful,” he says.

“I’ve started with nothing and have built In The Style. I’ll always be proud of that and if I can ever advise or help anyone, even with just one thing, that’s a positive thing.”

That’s just the kind of positive influencer the world of retail needs.