The team at ISAWITFIRST on creativity, working with influencers and bringing The Godfather into fashion

Earlier this month, the team at UK fashion firm ISAWITFIRST worked with 360 Audit’s Henna Riaz to launch a new collection around The Godfather.

We caught up with Henna and the team at ISAWITFIRST to find out what made the Seventies classic a good fit for the fashion firm’s audience – and also dive into the team’s work with influencers.

What made The Godfather a great fit for the I Saw It First audience?
Henna Riaz, Managing Partner, 360 Audit and 360 Global Partnerships: The Godfather is a nostalgic and timeless film. It’s universally known to be edgy, iconic and cool which resonates with the ISAW audience.

As a fast fashion business, we recognise that classic movies are responsible for asserting style and fashion in the minds of generation after generation.

From a design point of view, what did the first few creative steps look like when putting together the range?
Molly Mayston, Assistant Buyer for Licensed Collections, ISAWITFIRST: When creating any range, we always want our product to reflect the franchise. For this range, we wanted to create product that represented the dark edgy aspects of the film. We paired the classic imagery with our existing bestselling shapes that our customer knows and loves to create a range that we think the Don himself would approve of!

What sort of brands usually work for your audience?
Bryony Frith, Digital Acquisition Manager, ISAWITFIRST: When considering brand collaborations, we like to target new audiences without alienating our existing one. That being said, you need to hit the sweet spot of something a little ‘out there’ and new, but something that remains true to the brand. I think the Godfather collection is the perfect example of this. We’re always thinking about our existing customers and striving for our target customer. A good collaboration will hit both of those.

The brands that work for our audience are fun, colourful and have a story to tell. We’ve worked on some incredibly diverse collaborations in the past from Powerpuff Girls to Hello Kitty, Regatta sportswear and of course, our Love Island partnership.

All these collaborations attract new different audiences but also fit with ISAWITFIRST. We are currently looking to further diversify with homeware, beauty, menswear and more diverse influencers!

On the influencer front, how involved do they get when it comes to design process during your collaborations?
Sara Kamani, Senior Influencer Executive, ISAWITFIRST: When it comes to working with influencers, we know that their audience follow them for their style, so it’s a no-brainer to give them quite a lot of creative control when it comes to their collections.

We ask the influencer to send over a mood-board of their style so we can work with the buyers to pull styles and newness that fit within this. We then invite the influencer into our HQ to meet the team and talk about their edit.

We are really keen for the influencer to be open and honest on the pieces pulled as we don’t want them promoting product that they don’t like. Customers can see through this in a second! We also work with them on the concepts of the shoots and the marketing!

And if you were to pick one golden rule when it comes to creating successful partnerships with influencers, what would it be?
SK: The key to a successful partnership is communication! It’s important that we build strong relationships with these influencers as that is part of our success as a brand and why people continue to want to work with us.

Finally, before I let you go, how do team fuel their creativity?
Elle Kettle, Digital PR & Content Manager, ISAWITFIRST: ISAWITFIRST is a brand for women run by women! We are a diverse team who all have different likes, strengths and priorities when it comes to collaborations! This diversity fuels our creativity and ensures that we never do the same thing twice!

Brill – thanks for making time guys! And folks can check The Godfather range out in full here.