Livestream: How an iconic Idris Elba helped Superdry get hip, happening again

The far-reaching and hysteria-inducing appeal of celebrity-endorsed apparel is a well-oiled trope of the fashion world. Superdry was a little late to realise this, but when they did, they went hammer and tongs on getting their mix of glamour and cutting-edge design just right. The company, whose profits range in the $50-60 mn range annually was in a desperate need to give their label a kick in the shins, and they realised a go for broke campaign with Idris Elba might just be the ticket. Elba, who dazzled audiences in films like Beasts of No Nation and the TV show Luther, happens to be someone who takes his dressing seriously. 

The depth of Elba’s involvement with the label is seen early on as a whole posse of male models (in their early 20s) are brought in to model for the Superdry’s Idris Elba range. However, a day-long shoot later, the team realises they needed models in the late 20’s to early 30s, keeping their brand ambassador in mind. Similarly, when acclaimed British photographer Rankin is brought on board to photograph Elba, we see the wonderful results of the collaboration where Rankin shoots Elba in a larger than life format, highlighting both the quality of Elba, the actor and the fashion label.

The documentary also offers a perspective on the number of iterations and evolutions every singular unit of apparel goes and the back and forth involved, when one is dealing with the creative types. Interestingly, Superdry’s brand logo incorporates Japanese text, which was inspired by a common Japanese practice of using decorative English text alongside brand names and logos to heighten the fashionable appeal of the product. The phenomenon is referred to as Engrish. Customers have often mistaken the brand to be a Japanese label, lending it an even more exotic appeal.

Title: Cut from a Different Cloth

Source: Netflix 

Synopsis: In 2015, British high street fashion label Superdry embarked on one of its biggest media campaigns ever, as it signed on actor Idris Elba to help create a new, iconic range of menswear and winterwear that would appeal to a cross section of smart dressers. This is the story of how that collaboration came about. 

Superdry was born as Cult Clothing in Cheltenham, UK in 1985 when co-founders Julian Dunkerton and James Holder decided to set up a young and trendy label to appeal to the pre-millennials. In 2003, when Theo Karpathios came onboard, the company set out on a nationwide expansion as the SuperGroup, which owned the label Superdry.