Yes, I Saw It First is a fast fashion brand.
I Saw It First (also known as ISIF) is another British fast fashion online retail brand. It was founded by Jalal Kamani, the co-founder of Boohoo. In 2022, I Saw It First was bought out by Frasers Group, who owns Sports Direct and many other fast fashion brands.
The business produces huge lines of clothes (847 styles of dress, 1147 styles of top, 1762 styles of loungewear at last count) for low prices (1097 styles in £10 and under, 154 styles in £5 and under).
I Saw It First is worth £24 million, but has very little corporate information online. It tends to focus on putting pressure on the customer while shopping, with countdowns on limited offers, multiple discount codes, sales, clearances, and cheap delivery costs too.
The brand also offers three different buy-now-pay-later schemes on its site – Clearpay, Laybuy, and Klarna. This is a controversial tactic that encourages higher value purchases and getting customers into debt.
Unlike Boohoo, this smaller brand is not part of any sustainable fashion initiatives. Similar to Boohoo, however, I Saw It First is under scrutiny for illegal wages and inadequate working conditions to prevent the spread of covid-19. And yes, those factories are based in the UK.
Transparency Rating: N/A
Sustainability Rating: N/A
This snippet is part of a larger guide to UK fast fashion brands, which goes into more detail about the issues with fast fashion, why it will never be sustainable, and how to make your wardrobe more sustainable.
Data for this review is taken from the brand’s website, corporate website, and Wikipedia. The Transparency Rating is from Fashion Transparency Index 2020. The Sustainability Rating is from Good On You.