S6 Ep 17 | How to Reinvent Yourself After Your Biggest Success Ft. Daniella Helayel fashion Designer & Creative Consultant

0:04Welcome to Beyond Marketing, the podcast. I'm Mara Genovese. I'm the founder and CEO of Amity Empower Global Integrated Market Agency. Today, I'm joined by a woman who proved that your biggest achievement doesn't have to be your last. From founding the globally renowned fashion label ISSA London to become one of the industry's most respected creative and strategic advisors, Daniela Helile has spent her career building brands, shaping culture and continuously reinventing herself. And I'm so proud to have a dear friend, Daniela, with me. Welcome to Beyond Marketing, the podcast. Thank you. Thank you for having me.

0:47It's my first podcast ever. And it should be with us, the first one. Thank you. You're like a dear friend and I really admire you, your career, everything you've done. all the reinvention and all the ups and downs we learned so much no yes we learned so much that's why like I was just like then it has such a beautiful and powerful story because I've known you for so many years I've been on the for over 20 years and you even more than 20 years how long I think so I've been in London for 26 years 26 years yes oh my god how much we have done learn and evolve, which is beautiful. And I think your story needs to be, you know, told to the world because you're such a, likewise, such an inspirational woman that I've been following your path for so many years.

1:35And I'm so excited to have you here. But before we start our conversation, who is Daniela Relayo? Oh, God, I'm not prepared. Who is Daniela Relayo? Daniela Helayo is very transparent, very open, and sometimes no filter, which is good. And very caring, very loyal. I'm a very loyal friend and very spiritual, very creative. And I think I just want to make people feel good. and I love your smile because your energy is just so contagion and when you say that you're very loyalty and you're very creative you can feel that you're not just saying for the sake of the saying so it's a you can feel that coming from you which is so beautiful so how let's talk about like your incredible career on fashion and creative but let's go back into the in the days So you first went to New York after being living in Brazil.

2:41Tell us a little bit more like you're starting. OK, the first time I went to New York, I was 11 years old. Wow. And I arrived there with my mom and my stepfather on holiday. And I said to them, I'm going to live here. And they were like, really? And I'm like, I can see that. And then a few years later, I was on holiday. I went to Canada. I had a friend from Brazil that her sister lived in Montreal. It was summer. I went there and then I went to see my stepfather's cousins that lived in New York. And I stayed with them. I went to FIT to visit the school because I was studying fashion and law in Brazil.

3:22I used to study law and fashion. Wow, and fashion. Law at Pukki and fashion at San Icetik. And I did like two semesters or three in Brazil. And I went to FIT. I enrolled myself in a course. I called my mom and I'm like, wow, I'm moving to New York. How old were you? Like 17? No, no, 19. 19. And I'm like, and she's like, what? And I'm like, I'm moving to New York. I enrolled myself in a course at FIT, Fashion Institute of Technology. And she's like, OK, we talked with her back. And then I convinced them. I moved to New York. And it was amazing. And yeah, I started studying fashion and I worked at Saks Fifth Avenue in the cosmetics department spraying perfume.

4:11And like I used to work for Cosme. I had a student visa so I could work part time. And I would like be like demonstrating like cosmetics and perfumes for them. I worked with the salespeople from Saks Fifth Avenue and they loved me because I would understand Spanish. Brazilians were like buying everything. everything so I would make those like huge sales for them and then and then after I started like friends I had the friends that used to own this chain of boutiques in Brazil called Fabricato in Rio and they had like 16 shops and they went to New York and they I took them around I was like oh they wanted to do research so I went and took them around and by the end of the trip they were like oh do you want to work for us here and I'm like sure doing what and they were like oh doing research buying pieces taking photos and I'm like yeah why not and they're going to fabric wholesalers and doing research on all that and I said oh that's great so there was my first client and then came another client called Habudisaya and and then there came so many others so suddenly I had an office in New York, like lots of people working with me.

5:31And I had everyone like from like Zoom. Zoom. Oh, my God. To like NK when Natalie opened her shop. I used it to do all her buying. Wow. I didn't know that. Yeah. So this is my first incarnation. I love that. We all have our first incarnations. Yes. So many incarnations. So there was my first incarnation. And I was incredible. And then I had like all those like clients that wanted to ship things to Brazil. So I found a trading company in Brazil that I became partners with. And I would consolidate the cargo and they would clear everything through customs for them. So I was very entrepreneurial from a very early age.

6:15At that time of year, what age? Like 23. 23, so young. And I was very entrepreneurial at a very early age. And it was crazy. and suddenly I had like this business that was going on with like and it's still at the school no no I quit the FIT I did a few semesters I quit FIT because I started being so busy with work so I had to like you know was 19 maybe was 22 anyway I was not a very good student ever I didn't have the patience because as entrepreneurs mindset is very different yeah I'm like that I've never been good at school and they're like well how are you not good at school and now you have a business like don't don't ask me because like is one thing is being good at school another thing is get things done exactly anyway so and that was the first thing and like was amazing and then one day um I had this boyfriend for a long time in New York I woke up and I said to Claudia that he used to work with me and run the office I'm like I'm going traveling.

7:21I broke up with the boyfriend. I went traveling and I never came back. And what about the business? The business is like looking after the business. And then you came to London. And I moved to London. Because you fell in love with London. I fell in love with Europe. I was tired of America and I wanted to live in Europe. I went traveling for six months. I went back to New York and I'm like, do I want to live here? I don't think so. I'm going to move to London and try something totally new. So I did nothing for a year. And then I was really bored. I was just having too much fun. And I only had vintage clothes in my closet.

8:00I didn't have not one new dress. Because you're passionate about vintage? I love vintage. I still love vintage. But at the time, I only had vintage clothes, not one new dress. And I had all those friends here in London. And they were like so stylish. And I would wear my vintage dresses. And they were like, oh, where is it from? I want. And I'm like, wow, it's vintage. I can lend you, but you need to give me back. And they were like, oh, why don't you make us some dresses? And I'm like, oh, OK, maybe. So, yeah. So I started making things. But in New York for Habit Sia, I went to Hong Kong the first time with them.

8:38And I took them to China. And I'm like, no, we need to go to China because China is like. It's the place to be. Yeah, so we went to China and I started manufacturing things first for them in New York and then in China. So you did kind of have an understanding a little bit about manufacturing fabric when you moved to London. I did, I did, I did. But it was very much like my student years when I moved to London because I quit school in New York. And what I was doing there was more entrepreneurial. was more like you know like going to showrooms taking buyers to different showrooms helping them choosing things buying and then making sure everything was properly shipped to them and they would get everything so when i moved to london i became so creative like i started designing prints and i started like have like you know i said okay so i'm gonna start with making pajamas like in the prints that I'm designing and then I'm like but I can't go out in pajamas so and mix and make some dresses and this was 2000 2000 yeah 2000 and I'm like okay so uh what am I gonna do I don't like so I found like a seamstress I found some pattern cutters and you were designing so yeah i found someone out of some martins a chinese guy because i wanted the chinese because i wanted to go back to china okay and i found the chinese guy that he would like do all the technicals because i don't have patience i need very thing i need i need to surround myself with very very good good people yeah they're very precise because i can have i'm like a fountain i'll have like a trillion ideas and then so i found hong pong uh and i did my first collection from like i started working on it in like october november and i launched in february and that was already isa the name isa yeah the name yeah it was isa uh the name when i moved to london i started seeing unicorns everywhere i like was like this crazy thing and I'm like, oh, my God, all those unicorns.

10:53I had dreams of unicorns. And then I saw that the coat of arms was like a unicorn. A unicorn, yes. And then I had bought this bracelet when I was living in New York still. And Hong Kong was like, look, your bracelet is a unicorn. It was an enameled unicorn. I never noticed that my bracelet was a unicorn when I bought. I bought an enameled vintage bracelet and was a unicorn. And I'm like, ah, that's a sign. So I knew I did the logo before I did, I found the name. The name. And the name inspiration came from? The name, the inspiration came from the surfers. The surfers in Brazil, when they would get like the best wave, they would scream like, Issa!

11:35Really? I never imagined it came from that. So they do that. Issa! Well, in Rio they did. So they was like, Issa! Now I'm going to have to pay attention next time I see. what's the name of the famous word Pedro I don't know I was at the beach and I remember probably it's like a childhood memory so I wanted a name that was pronounced the same way in every language that was short because my name Daniela Relayo people were like Daniela Relayo? Excuse me? Daniela what? And I'm like no no this is not an ego trip Isa will be my dream team So the name needs to be a name that is pronounced the same way in every single language that is short and catchy.

12:25So I wanted like a name that was memorable because it's like Issam became just a memory. Yeah, yeah. And it's not just about me. It's about the team that I put together. I will be like the conductor. Yeah, I love that. And yeah, so that's how I named Issam. I love that. and then like because like you're such like a bright soul and then someone that has this energy that is very contagious and you have an incredible networking of people do you think that um isa when you start like you said that you start the collection and then after three months you launch and then it was already a success do you think no it was not a success straight away no No, it was not a success straight away.

13:13My first two years were like my student years. I sold the first collection Das Lu bought. Only Das Lu in Brazil bought. Because a friend of mine, Wanda, brought Das Lu to see the collection. And Donata and Eliana bought the collection. I can see Eliana wearing the year collection. I think it was Donata that came. And then no one bought. And I'm like, oh my God, I thought this was so fabulous. No one bought. And then my second collection I sold to Barney's. Barnes, New York. A shop in Paris called Maria Luisa that was very cool at the time. One in L.A. called Yellow. So just six shops, the second collection.

13:51And then the third collection, I hated. You hated? I hated. I decided to do this collection that was a winter collection. And I decided to work with Scottish tweeds. And before it was the prints, the first two collections? collection was jersey and prints and suede and leather that was made by Patricia Vieira that is Andrea de Lausice, she was my friend and it was a mix between jersey and suede and then the second collection was all those cottons, cotton dresses from like Swiss fabrics and it was very cool and was inspired by June Paris, Festa Junina, like from Brazil so it was like all this patchwork with cottons and it was really cute and in the third collection I imagined like on my mind that was gonna be for Prince William's girlfriend like at the time that didn't exist it didn't exist because Catherine was not still dating him no no and but she was my imaginary muse So you were already manifesting by the time.

15:05Yeah. But I didn't like because it came a bit too heavy. So I didn't master the tailoring that I tried to do. So I didn't show the collection. So you skipped that collection. I skipped. And then on the fourth collection, I went back to the cotton. It was great. and then some friends started using my vintage pieces the jersey ones from the first collection and a friend of mine she was a PR she saw someone wearing it she's like where is this dress from and she's like oh it's Danielle it's oh it's Danielle I need to come and see her I'm going to the James Bond premiere and I want to borrow a dress so she called me and said oh can I come and borrow one of your dresses and I said yes sure so I had all those boxes They used to live in this loft that was like a warehouse at the time.

16:00She came, borrowed, found the dress that she wanted. First, I showed all the cotton pieces. Like, no, no, no. I want the printed ones. The printed ones. And I'm like, oh, the ones from my first collection. Okay. And she's like, this is genius. It's amazing. And I'm like, oh, no one liked. And she's like, no, it's amazing. And this was like collection. It was two years later. And I was very like, you know, I was like, oh, maybe I should. not do this maybe it's not gonna work it's just like no this is amazing and I was like well um do you want to do this with me and she's like yeah and I told her I also have this idea I'm trying to bring Havaianas to the UK uh the flip-flops and um we need to build a business plan because I approached them when I lived in New York and they were not ready to export now I approached them again like many years later the only country that is available it's like the United Kingdom.

16:56And they're looking for a distributor. Since then, I'm shocked. So your head was like everywhere. So you're building your brand at the same time trying to bring Havaianas from Bobby in the UK. I became the distributor of Havaianas for 12 years. You became the distributor of Havaianas. I didn't know that either. And bringing Havaianas. So you actually did bring Havaianas here. Yeah, in like Scotland, Ireland and England. And we did so well because people are like, oh, flip flops, this country is cold. No one's going to sell that. And I'm like, ah, the UK, they go holiday year round. So we ended up doing the PR worldwide for them at the time and being a distributor here for them.

17:41And we made the killing was so good. United Kingdom or all the United Kingdom. We did like UK, we did England, Ireland and Scotland for the flip flops. But we sold so many flip-flops for 12 years. And then they took in-house. Wow, that part was hidden. I didn't know that at all. And then at the same time, building ISA. And being the main distributors of the most worldwide flip-flop Havaianas. Yeah, and then I remember one Christmas, me and the studio packing 1 ,200 little bags of Havaianas, handwriting letters to everyone because you were doing that from your flat yeah i had like it was more than a flat i had the studio in wapping there was like 3 000 square feet was like a warehouse and was a very creative cool space so you're hired that became so i like you know we Maria that joined me and became my business partner at ISA.

18:48So she had 30 % of ISA had 70 % and then we became partners on Havaianas 33, 33, 33. We found an investor. Her boyfriend at the time wrote a business plan for us. I love the story. And we got the distribution. So it was like ISA and Havaianas were born together here. That's incredible. Yeah. And then like when I say like all success, right? So I say, no, there was no success straight away. but you have an incredible group of networking do you think your network helped you to get your brand to when i arrived here i knew no one yeah that's my question because your network is impressive i loved you every time you go around and you talk about you there's no one person that i have heard anything that they don't say oh my god i adore daniela so you didn't know anyone I didn't know anyone.

19:40I had like two friends when I arrived here. My friend Olivier Moreau, he's an artist, very eccentric, much older, and a friend of mine called Robedio. That's it. I knew no one. And then I went, yeah, the first time I came to the UK was 97. And then I arrived here in 99. Those are the only two people I knew. I went to live in a hotel. And I lived six months in this hotel and I used to have a party in my hotel room every night because I know you really love parties because uh your house at one point was just like the key kind of the most trendy spot light to be was when you used to do your amazing parties yeah it was so fun it was so fun being once or twice I don't remember yeah when I lived in Cheney Walk in front of the river yeah like it was so fun anyway so I was living in this hotel and like I was just opened it was the St.

20:39Martin's Lane Hotel was like Ian Schrager Hotel and had the bar downstairs called the Light Bar so we would go downstairs and I had a friend with me from New York she would come often and she was very funny and we would go there and I met some people here and I became friends with them very quickly. Their father used it to all monsoon and accessorize my friend Zara and Jessica Simon. So it became my muses. And not just muses, but at the time I was doing nothing and we would just be hanging out. They were very beautiful and super fun. We would go downstairs and I was like, let's have a party in my hotel room because English, they love an after party.

21:17They love to party, yes. And we would cast. I didn't know who people were. And we were like, oh, I'm having a party in my hotel room do you want to come and I had this happened for like six months so I met half of London at the time wow in my hotel room because everyone wanted to come to my hotel room for the party and the hotel was okay for you to do like yeah they all didn't care they all didn't care I used to have like a bathtub like full of champagne and then that's how you start getting to know people and i met so many people at the time wow because everyone wanted to come to my parties in the hotel room and then i started working very hard again and and then isa was born and in the first two years with this and then we had the first fashion show at sketch before it was open to the public and we had like all those screens being projecting the prints the images of the prints and was super cool.

22:19And then, like, you know, the friends started using. Dressing, using, supporting, because I remember. The friends started using. And then the shops, like, you know, they came and then celebrities came. The press was the last. The press is always the last. They only, like, start writing about it once they see someone that is really famous. But I have, like, so many, like, funny stories. I was having dinner last night with a friend and just other couple, and they were asking me questions. And they were like, oh, you should write a book. And I'm like, and I... After listening to all the story, you definitely should write a book.

22:56But let's talk about that moment in 2010 that it became a timeless moment. It's when Catherine, Prince of Wales, dressed Issa for her engagement day. that moment I still have in my memory because it was all of the press and there was like very very emotional in two cents first to see the engagement the beautiful incredible ring that she was uh being gifted by you know Prince William that was belonged to his um to Diana Prince of Diana and then it comes your dress and it was all over the world and then you can see like oh my god there's a brazilian designer she's dressing isa she's dressing a dress that daniela created did you know that she would wear i didn't know that was a surprise for you it was a surprise i was a surprise and princess catherine uh before she was before she married prince william She would wear a lot of Issa for like five years before she was engaged.

24:10So she would wear Issa in many different occasions. And she was a fan of the brand. So you knew that she was a fan of the brand? Yeah, no, I knew her. She came to my studio several times. But I tried to keep like very... We were not like friendly, friendly, but she was like a very kind and lovely person. So she came to my studio the day before the engagement. And she said she had a very formal lunch the next day. But she bought the dress from Fenwick. She said, oh, I bought one of your dresses. All right. I have this very formal lunch tomorrow. So when I woke up the day of the engagement, a journalist, I was at yoga.

24:51My phone was off. And a journalist called, had left a message. Oh, the engagement was announced. Is she wearing Easter? I'm like, I have no idea. And then I was like, oh, maybe that's formal lunch. So we found out at the same time as everyone. That the formal lunch was the engagement. Yeah, we found at the same time when they appeared on TV that she was wearing like a blue Issa dress. What did you feel about it? Like how did you react to it? We were like so excited. It was quite something. I had like eight phone lines in my studio and the office. Issa was big already at the time. We were sold in about 450 shops in 48 countries around the world.

25:35But it went viral. My phones didn't stop ringing for a whole week. We had paparazzi outside of the office. And it was like, it was so funny. Oh, my God. This is like very inconvenient. And then I remember everyone was trying to buy the same dress. And then the dress went sold out. And then a lot of other retailers are replicating the dress. because I remember saying, guys, like, what's going on here? Now everyone is trying to copy the dress. And that was a big moment. It was such a big moment. It was incredible because, you know, she had like a ring that belonged to Diana that was beautiful and a dress from a very niche brand that was quite unknown.

26:20No, no. It's a very simplistic way, but very chic at the same time. It was just like the whole thing was so classic. Yeah, but a lot of people could relate to that dress because that dress, my grandma that was 82 years old or like 80 years old at the time, she had that same shape dress. And like a girl that is like 25 could wear the same dress or 28. So that dress was very versatile. And then, like, of course, we're talking about starting success, having, you know, someone like Catherine wearing a dress during engagement moment. But the life of an entrepreneur is not always success. Oh, my God.

27:08So much work. That is so much work. But also there's this ups and downs. that is the fears, the insecurities, because sometimes, you know, people look at us, founders and people that are very creative, that have many visions and able to create so many things at the same time, but it's not always flowers. It's not a straight line. It's like this, it's a roller coaster. And how do you cope with that roller coaster? So I don't stress. Okay. I'm very hard to make me stressed because I think like in the end everything works out yeah uh if it's not working out right now it's because it's not meant to be but in the end everything will work out so I have this very positive attitude to life always uh that yeah I think you know I don't get stressed but behind the scenes it's so like it's so much work like it's a very like you know to To be in fashion, people think, oh, it's very glamorous.

28:16But it's a lot of work, as you know. Like to make a garment, to make the right construction, the patterns, the fittings. It's very technical. It's a lot of work. And we design all the fabrics, all the prints. So it's not just like pick that. It has a whole process around. Do you consider yourself as a risk taker? I think so, yeah. Yeah? Yeah. And so you're not afraid of risks? No. Yeah, I'm the same. Because there's a lot of people that are risk adverse. So I have a partner today in my business that he's like the opposite of me. He's like the risk adverse. It's good to ground him. It's really, yes.

28:59That's why I think it's working so well between the two of us. Because we have that balance. So you would say that you're a risk taker. I would take things into consideration. But I like to take risks. What makes you excited? What makes me excited? I create and make beautiful things and have great ideas, traveling, nature, so many things. Swimming in the sea. Swimming in the sea, the best, especially now this time of the year. But like Dani, and now where you are today, because you get a lot of like, I know you really like to support many different charities, social work related to fashion. Tell us a little bit more about like that social work that is always very Daniela.

29:50Yeah, I love, I support the London Air Ambulance. Yes, which is so beautiful. My friend Julia Leal, she's the chair. So when Julia became the chair of the philanthropy board and Fabiana Ecclestone became the co-chair, they came to me and said, Daniela, would you come and help us? So it was me, Julia, Fabiana, and another friend of Julia called Sirius. And they needed help to buy a new helicopter, two new helicopters. And we had to raise a certain amount of money, first for the charity to operate, because the charity is supported by private individuals. The NHS just pays for the salary of the doctors.

30:32Like 95 % is all supported by private individuals. So when she came and she's like, we need to help them. And I'm like, okay. So we went, like they did one gala and they raised like 70 ,000. And we were like, this is not possible to do a gala and raise 70 ,000. So we came, the four of us, in the initial philanthropy board. and in the first gala we did we raised 700 ,000. Wow. That was I think was 2018 or 19 and was amazing. So now we did four galas together because we don't do every year. Ah, you don't do every year. Not too much. Every year is like we do like every year and a half, two years.

31:19And now how this is evolving as a fundraiser? Like it's still to reward the helicopters. What is next? Yeah, I introduced them to, like, not the last gala, the one before last. I invited a friend of mine. He has this business called Omaze. His name is Matt. Okay. To my table. And Milana, this friend of ours that is in the philanthropy board, did a speech. She had an accident, and she was saved by the London Air Ambulance. Oh, wow. And Matt was very touched by her speech. And he's like, Daniela, I think I can help you guys. And we did this house. Omaze is like this raffle that you buy and you get a house.

32:04And Matt donates like, I think it's like 17 or 20 % of the money raised to a charity. And we did a raffle with Omaze. And David Beckham became the ambassador for that. And we raised$4 million. yeah so we needed to raise 16 million to buy the helicopters and we did wow that's incredible and prince william he's our he's a patron he's our patron yeah that's incredible and i think this year last year that tom cruise was there last year not this year this year he was not there yes yeah so it became like a such a important moment for for london every time there's this because everyone talks about and it causes just so beautiful so profound and it's it's so important because, you know, could be any of us.

32:52Yeah. Like it was our friend from the philanthropy board that had this accident and was saved by the London Air Ambulance. That is crazy. It's so important. It's so important. And it's like you call like 999, and they will decide if they will send a normal ambulance or the London Air Ambulance. And what the London Air Ambulance does, they can make an operation, a blood transfusion on the spot. On the spot. Yeah, because they save lives. They bring the hospital to the injured. It's not that they take the injured to the hospital. To the hospital. Okay, that's incredible. They perform life-saving procedures on the spot.

33:33On the spot. And then like you, like even if you guys don't do every year, but every year they do other things. You do all these small little things to continue to bring the awareness of the importance of the cause. That's beautiful. and then with the British Fashion Council you're still involved with them? The British Fashion Council I think I will be again Laura is a friend she's divine I don't want to do shows yet I'm relaunching it's in October I heard that I'm just so I just cannot How many years since 2013 So it's like 13 years And then Issa is going to be back. Can you tell us a little bit what we can expect or not?

34:21Lots of prints, lots of colors, lots of beautiful dresses. Our idea is to make not just a fashion brand, but I have a partner. He's in tech, in like deep tech. And the idea is to create this tech layer that will support the business behind that is so modern and so incredible. that everything like from like cash flow to stock optimization, like everything is like managed by AI agents. Which you will see the difference that is going to be from the previous business that you had 13 years ago because something like now... No, I'm at school again. I feel like I'm learning so much. I'm like, okay, so I have so much to learn.