Adam Frisby: In The Style

Adam Frisby 31
Company: In The Style
Web: www.inthestyle.com

Adam Frisby’s working life began flipping burgers with no GCSEs. Today, he is at the head of a £15m clothing brand which fuses Manchester’s anarchic cultural scene with Britain’s love of reality TV.

His business, In The Style, is an online clothing retailer made famous through collaborations with celebrity influencers from reality shows like Made In Chelsea and The Only Way Is Essex.

The venture is built on ‘fast fashion’, edgy designs straight from the catwalk which are hugely popular among women and girls aged 16 to 30.

The success of the venture has made Frisby one of Britain’s sought-after young fashionistas. He’s been featured in Drapers’ 30 Under 30, and is regularly seen in the tabloids alongside the country’s pretty young things.

Frisby says he got his work ethic as a teenager, when he relocated to Spain with his family and was forced to work at Burger King on his return due to a lack of options. He subsequently branched out into banking and recruitment, before eventually taking a redundancy payout of £1,000 in 2013 and ploughing it into his dream.

Originally from Norfolk, Frisby relocated to Manchester before starting his venture and fell in love with the city, seeing it as the perfect place to start a business. Manchester has long been a beating heart of the UK’s cultural scene, and its daring fashions are very much evident in Frisby’s product range.

Right from the start, In The Style has been all over social media. Frisby sold his very first batch of dresses through social media and has since focused on generating a viral buzz for his e-tailer, using the reflected glory provided by reality celebs.

A key early milestone was securing the collaboration of TOWIE star Lauren Pope, and the company has since worked with several other TV favourites including Billie Faiers, Binky Felstead and Charlotte Crosby. This approach has built an army of online fans: In The Style has 1.4 million direct followers on social media, backed by a wider social media reach of 18 million via its celebrity partners.

The business took on external investment from mid-market private equity firm Livingbridge last year, and is eyeing expansion into new avenues such as plus-size lines. The company has also launched an under-£5 range as it targets UK-wide dominance: Frisby says he wants to hit £50m turnover within a few years.

Given recent pop culture trends, he has every reason to be confident. Love Island dominated Britain’s consciousness this summer, almost knocking the World Cup off the top of the watercooler charts.

In The Style has been quick to capitalise by signing up winner Dani Dyer as its latest collaborator, and with a new series of TOWIE just around the corner, Frisby will no doubt already be eyeing up his next publicity goldmine.