FIRST class flights, luxury Maldives holidays and star-studded Ibiza pool parties - the founder of £30 million company In The Style has a very glamorous lifestyle.
Now Adam Frisby, 32, from Manchester, is letting cameras behind the scenes of his fashion empire for on a new BBC reality show.
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The entrepreneur, who dropped out of school before doing his GCSEs, used £1,000 redundancy money to launch his online clothing company six years ago.
Since then, he's worked with the likes of Love Island winner Dani Dyer, Mummy Diaries star Billie Faiers, I'm A Celeb runner-up Emily Atack and Geordie Shore's Charlotte Crosby, who he now calls his best friend.
Despite making millions in the process, Adam admits he can't always predict the trends - and says some designs are so outrageous, he's got no idea who's buying them.
Speaking exclusively to Fabulous Digital, he said: "I don't always know what's going to be a hit, sometimes I get it wrong.
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"After six years, I know the customer quite well and I use my gut feeling a lot.
"But there are definitely things we do where I think ‘who the hell is buying that?’
"A couple of years ago, the neon trend went crazy, and we were like ‘what the hell?’ This was before the Kardashians even started wearing it.
There are definitely things we do where I think ‘who the hell is buying that?’
Adam Frisby
"Sometimes we’ll bring in crazy prints and it starts to pick up. You think ‘hang on, it’s really working here’. There can be surprises.
"A few years ago, I did a slogan jumper for Charlotte Crosby and she requested to have 'I'm a cloud on it'.
"I said 'this is crazy Charlotte, no-one wants that on a jumper', but it sold out.
"You never really know what people are buying, but I think seeing it on a celebrity is a massive help. We sell millions of items a year."
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Celebrity collaborations are a core part of Adam's brand - and he insists the reality stars aren't simply putting their names to their collections.
Adam said: "When I started In The Style six years ago, I wanted the brand to be relatable.
"At that time, there was a bit of snobbery around reality TV, but I wanted to link it with fashion.
"Unlike a catwalk star or A-list celeb, they're someone who actually shops on the high-street.
"The girls are really involved. There's a lot of brands who will pay a celeb a fee to put their name to something, that's the opposite of how we work.
I know other brands had bigger budgets and offered Dani Dyer a lot more money
Adam Frisby
"From day one they meet with the design team - the collections take about three months to pull together.
"We are probably the only brand that truly goes through the design process with those girls, which I think sets us apart.
"We've had situations in the past where celebs haven't wanted to be so involved, so we haven't done a collection with them - it's so important to the brand.
"We're trying to build longevity with them, we've worked with Billie and Charlotte for four or five years. It's very organic and real, which is important to us."
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- Newspaper Print Monochrome Tie Crop Top, £14.25 - buy here
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- Lime Ruched Cross Back Mini Dress, £18.75 - buy here
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- White Snake Print Skinny Jeans, £18.75 - buy here
One of Adam's biggest signings to date was last year's Love Island winner Dani Dyer.
In The Style went head-to-head with all its rivals for the deal - but Adam revealed the 23-year-old turned down bigger offers to work with him.
He said: "Dani came with us because she truly believed in the brand’s values.
"I know big fees were thrown around by different brands, but she wanted to have control.
One of the things I'm most proud of, is I started In The Style in my bedroom
Adam Frisby
"She wanted to have an input, she wanted it to be true to her. I really respect her for that.
"I know other brands had bigger budgets and offered a lot more money.
"It was a great achievement for me to sign someone like Dani. When she came out of Love Island, she was one of the biggest celebs in the UK.
"She had 100,000 sign-ups and the collection sold out less than two hours.
"There was an amazing buzz around her collection, that was one of the biggest points of my career."
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This year's Love Island winner Amber Gill and runner-up Molly Mae Hughes recently hit headlines for their high value partnerships with brands from The Boohoo Group.
Molly is thought to have netted £500,000 from PrettyLittleThing, while Amber bagged a huge £1 million deal from Miss Pap.
Both belong to the same £3 billion empire, which began as a humble Manchester market stall, owned by businessman Mahmud Kamani, 55.
We sell millions of items a year
Adam Frisby
Adam said: "I met both Molly and Amber when they came out of Love Island and had no idea if they were going to sign with us or not.
"If you look at the top four girls from Love Island this year - Molly, Amber, India and Maura - they've all gone with that group.
"It’s really difficult for anyone outside of that fashion group to make it work, because you can’t pay the kind of money that they pay them.
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"I have masses of respect for Dani, because it wasn’t just about the fee for her.
"I can't say what we pay, but it's not as high as people would expect. We work on a loyalties basis, so there's not a significant upfront fee.
"It's a true partnership which is why it does so well. Dani promotes that range, she loves it, she wants to wear it.
"And it works both ways, we get approached by a lot of agents. When we did a collection with Made In Chelsea's Binky Felstead, it was her agent who came to us."
A true rags to riches story, Adam started his brand from his bedroom when he was made redundant from his job as a carer.
At the time, he was also caring for his brother, who was blinded in a car crash.
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He said: "One of the things I'm most proud of, is I started In The Style in my bedroom.
"A lot of fashion brands at the moment have come from a lot of money.
"They're fantastic brands but they're very cash rich businesses and rich families that run them. If things don't work, they can just churn more money into it.
"Whereas if I take a risk and it doesn't work, I wouldn't have a business afterwards.
"Sometimes we'll test an upcoming print, like the recent newspaper trend, with a couple of hundred units of stock.
"That might not sound like a lot, but it's not a cheap risk, that's still 200 units you have to sell."
IN THE STYLE'S JOURNEY FROM BEDROOM TO MAKING MILLIONS
The noughties: Aged 15, Adam drops out of school and starts working in Burger King.
Adam leaves this job to look after his brother, who was blinded in a car crash, before getting a job as a carer in Manchester.
August 2014: After being made redundant, Adam officially launches In The Style from his bedroom with £1,000 and just six dresses, bought from a wholesaler.
2015: Adam signs his first reality star and co-designs a collection with Towie's Lauren Pope.
He also gets his first office and takes on two employees.
Later the same year, he signs Charlotte Crosby and Billie Faiers.
2017/2018: In The Style makes £25 million - and a £4.46 gross profit.
2018/2019: In The Style makes £30 million.
The business is now run out of a 30,000 sq ft warehouse, with clothes made in the UK and China, and has 120 staff.
They recently teamed up with a marine conservation society, to donate a penny from every item sold to clean up plastic from the ocean.
With huge abroad shoots to pull off for celeb collections, self-confessed control freak Adam does worry about things not going to plan.
He said: "The programme shows the ups and downsides of filming, which is good.
"When we shot Emily's latest collection, a sneaky pap took some pictures, which weren't the most flattering angle.
"She read the comments online, which is probably the worst thing you could do, they were really horrible, saying she'd put on loads of weight and was fat.
"It did dent her confidence and the collection didn't initially do very well because in the imagery she's covering her stomach, you can tell she doesn't feel great in herself.
"We ended up re-shooting the collection on another day when she was feeling more herself, and the sales lifted massively."
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Despite working with celebs, Adam is keen his collections should always be fronted by 'normal' girls.
He said: "Our key points are inclusivity, diversity and female empowerment.
"We teamed up with Emily because we thought ‘she’s a normal girl, size 10-12, she went on a body confidence journey in the jungle’.
"She came out and said ‘I’m not going to retouch images any more’. We thought that was a great message and stopped retouching our images in January.
"Whether you've got cellulite, scars, whatever it is, it's important to be able to see that on somebody else. I think In The Style is known for that now."
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Last year, viewers of MTV's The Charlotte Show saw the Geordie lass's skirt rip open, to reveal her bare bum, while she was shooting for In The Style.
Adam said: "We've had a couple of issues with sample stuff. When we shot with Charlotte in Majorca last year, that was a bit of a disaster.
"Some of the sample sizes were wrong, so she was trying to squeeze into things and she didn't feel great about it.
"When we did the collection Charlotte was a size 8, by the time we shot it she was more of a 10.
"Things like that are always difficult, like any girl they've got their own feelings and emotions.
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"Sometimes there's boy trouble too, that can be a bit of a nightmare on a shoot, but we've never had a huge disaster, thank God."
The first episode of Breaking Fashion airs on BBC One at 10.35pm tonight, or is available on iPlayer now.
2019-09-25 09:35:00Z
https://www.thesun.co.uk/fabulous/9995817/in-the-style-founder-fashion-empire-bedroom-outrageous-designs/
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