A Chat with Idris Elba

Last week, I got a chance to chat to one of Britain’s top actors and all round nice chap, Idris Elba.

We were at the Superdry flagship store on Regent Street to take a sneak peek at the new releases in the Superdry Idris collection.

Firstly, it’s worth saying that whoever made the decision at Superdry that Idris was the man they wanted deserves a big pat on the back. I think it’s fair to say that he probably has one of the biggest profiles and male buyer influence in the U.K at the moment, probably even nipping at the heels of Becks.

And David Beckham is actually an interesting comparison. The rights usage of Becks has clearly had a positive impact for H&M but that partnership, from the outside at least, is clearly a badging exercise so I wanted to find out whether it was the same thing going on here. Not all collaborations are like that though, David Gandy, for example, is actually heavily invested in his M&S collection and regularly works on product development with the M&S. So Idris, which is it?

Well, when I asked him about the level of involvement he explained that actually the main purpose of his visit to the store was to work on round three of the Idris Superdry collection. He articulately explained that he wouldn’t put his name on something he wouldn’t wear himself and quite frankly doesn’t need to.

The longer we spoke the more I realised he did have genuine passion for this collaboration. A brand with a big budget is basically allowing him to design a wardrobe and to be fair, the collection does actually reflect his personality pretty well. Leathers and suede’s, coats titles ‘The Director’ all make up pieces that fits with the Idris brand.

We rambled a little longer, he told me about his busy and exciting forthcoming schedule and I praised his personalised doughnuts that you can see here:

Whatever way you look at it, having a man like Idris Elba promoting men’s fashion in the U.K can only be a good thing.

Check out the collection here