Samantha Paton - Sequins and support to build a fashion business

Creative Chit Chat - Dundee

Samantha Paton is the fashion designer behind independent clothing label Isolated Heroes. She describes it as a lot of fun with sequins and faux fur. From the outset, Samantha wanted to create a brand that resonated with real people. Using street cast models and an honest voice she has built an amazing following. Although she has worked on custom pieces for the likes of Lilly Allen she has also had Paloma Faith and stylists for Miley Cyrus and Tess Holliday placing orders directly through the website. We go into some of the facts and figures of the business which I found really interesting. The stand out is that 90% of sales traffic is driven through Instagram. It’s pretty incredible that a channel that didn’t exist a few years ago is providing a brilliant audience and customer base. It’s pretty easy to tell that Samantha has a really astute business mind and that has come from learning the hard way. I suppose I didn’t really consider the amount of money you need to invest in every collection which pushes the bank account to the limit every time. One of the most interesting things to come out of the conversation was the difficulties Samantha has had around mentorship. It’s a problem that Hayley Scanlan brought up in her episode and one that resonates across a lot of the creative community in Dundee. There doesn’t seem to be the relevant business support in Dundee when people get to a specific level or have very niche requirements. I think we need to be looking outside the city to bring that expertise in. Who’s role it is to facilitate it is another question though. There isn’t an easy answer but something that needs to be addressed if we want to see the creative community grow and thrive in Dundee. Isolated Heroes Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/isolatedheroes/ Isolated Heroes Twitter - https://twitter.com/isolatedheroes?lang=en Isolated Heroes Website - https://www.isolated-heroes.com/ Adopt an intern - https://twitter.com/adoptanintern?lang=en Tim Ferris - 4 hour work week - https://fourhourworkweek.com/ Peter Theil - Zero to One - https://medium.com/@paulmillr/zero-to-one-summary-8dbda22e1559