The Drop | Interview with Miguel

What can you tell us about this brand-new show?

We set out to create a system of challenges that would really help some amazing talent level up their business, level up their game and ultimately identify the strongest and most prepared and who we felt based on their performance who would be the most impactful designer in the UK, of some of the most talented creatives that we were able to find. I really feel strongly that that’s exactly what we did. We found some incredible talent and not just incredible talent but people with incredible vision and with a lot of purpose behind what they wanted to create so it was a real joy.

What inspired you to create your fashion brand?

I come from the hood and I never conformed to what was expected of me based on the way that I look or the perception of how I should behave based on social norms. So, I  wanted to build a brand that spoke to people who live like I do and who always felt compelled to realise their own path and to create their own identity. I want to inspire people to whatever that truth is for themselves. That’s what the brand energy is here to create and curate.

How would you describe your judging style?

I saw my role in in the whole process as finding out how do we tie all of these perspectives into one? How do we funnel that to the ultimate purpose and who was the most prepared to really make a huge impact? I get to have the last say but I had the best support and it really made my job a lot easier. I also really fell in love with each of our creatives. They’re just great people that I genuinely ended up loving by the end of the whole experience. Aside from that, it was a little bit of hard work, it was a lot of head work and just bringing it all together work!

What made you want to be a judge for The Drop?

I think it was because of my personal experience of how challenging it is to take an idea of manufacturing or creating a piece of clothing from an idea and putting it on paper to translating that to getting it manufactured and then getting it right. It’s such a process that a lot of people don’t understand. There’s a lot of work and craftsmanship that goes into it, and my experience inspired me to show other people why it’s such a challenge. Ultimately, I really want to help bring sustainability to the forefront. And with education, more and more of our youth who are the next market are going to be the people with purchase power in the next ten years and they’re going to be making decisions. So, we were able to prep the soil with our creatives for a more sustainable market.

What was the best part of the experience for you?

The best part of my experience was the people because it got a lot more rigorous than I could have even imagined. Delivering bad news to someone was the hardest part and having to do it a couple times was not fun but someone’s got to do it. Ultimately is for the bigger picture – that’s what the whole experience was for. I think each and every one of our creatives is a winner whether or not they won. I felt like every one of them walked away with some new insight on how to do whatever it is they’re passionate about better and how to level it up and elevate their game.

What I loved the most was the people and then feeling like I added value in some way shape or form to these people’s lives and to their businesses and then ultimately to our viewer.

What is the best advice you’ve received in your career that you’d pass onto the creatives?

The best advice I’ve ever gotten and I’d pass on is to be clear about who you are and what you truly want at every decision. The more clarity you have, the better and more prepared you’ll be when those inevitable situations that you never imagined you would be in come around.

I always encourage everyone to do the personal work to be as clear about what you want to accomplish – what you’re willing to do, what you’re not willing to do, and have your own boundaries. Have clarity and passion, stay passionate and stay hungry. You should always be willing to learn and you’ll be okay. It’s not always going to be easy, but you’ll come out feeling good about the things that you do.

What would you say makes The Drop different from other business competitions?

First and foremost, I think it’s true to life and gritty. We purposely didn’t make it like glitzy and glamorous, although ultimately we wanted the prize to be authentic. We wanted each of our contestants to be real people with real brands in different stages and have a real perspective. We wanted the prize to be something that was real – a real opportunity with a legitimate brick and mortar retailer where you can build a relationship just like any one of the successful brands that you see in in stores would have to do.  We believe that our contestants and our winner will benefit in the long term if they continue on their path and I feel really happy to have approached it with those intentions. I think we stay true to our goal and I’m looking forward to seeing our creatives really flourish. I really feel good about that as a co-executive producer of the show.

What can viewers expect from the series when they tune into BBC Three?

Except an authentic journey. Expect to fall in love with the contestants. Expect to fall in love with the all the personalities… including myself! Everyone’s going to fall in love with Blondey, Marc, Clara… who doesn’t love Clara?! You’re going to learn something but also have a good time. I feel like we check all the boxes and that’s what I wanted. I wanted to make good TV, where you’re learning something, you love the people, it’s upbeat and it feels good. In the end, there’s a winner that you will see in real life what they did and you’ll be able to engage with that product and that creative on a real level. So, I think it’s a great show all around!