Singer Miguel has said the BBC’s new streetwear competition will be “true to life” and show the “gritty” side of the industry rather than the glitz and glamour.
The upcoming BBC Three show, titled The Drop, will see nine up-and-coming creatives go head-to-head for the chance to have their streetwear brand stocked by major retail company Flannels.
Grammy-winning artist Miguel will act as executive producer as well as leading the judging panel alongside artist Blondey McCoy and fashion designer Marc Jacques Burton.
Miguel said: “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 stores would have to do.”
He added: “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.”
The series, which will be hosted by Radio 1 DJ Clara Amfo, will “capture the cultural synergy between fashion, music, sport, celebrity and business”.
Miguel explained that the show will see the designers go through challenges intended to “help some amazing talent level up their business”.
He added that the aim is to find the “strongest and most prepared” creative who they felt would be the new “most impactful designer in the UK”.
“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”, the singer added.
Miguel, who has his own sustainable fashion brand S1C, said he wanted to bring his own personal experience of how challenging it is to produce a piece of clothing from idea to getting it manufactured.
He added: “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.”
The Drop is due to launch on March 14 at 9pm on BBC Three and iPlayer.