Nicolas Loufrani’s Post

The younger generation always want to break away from the world of adults. They want to distinguish their world from that of their parents’ generation; different clothes, different music to match their spirit. But at the same time they like to anchor back to certain elements of the past, to show that they’re still here and still a part of society. There’s a need to break away but also to show continuity. Our new summer collection with By Samii Ryan captures this spirit. You’ll see heritage elements of the 90s like big, bold graphics and a nod to the 80s with pastel colours & vintage textures. But we’ve brought a distinctive modern touch to the range with high tech fabrics. And of course, messages of positivity. Smiley Company & By Samii Ryan have been partners since 2020 and I’m excited to continue our work together. Like Smiley, By Samii Ryan makes happy clothes for positive people. It’s our mission to bring positivity to you and your wardrobe. What do you think of the collection? Let me know in the comments.

Storytelling, Positivity & Creativity are the three Smiley Movement values. A new children’s book by conservationist & climate activist Emma Oldham fits all three perfectly. ‘The Whale Who Disappeared’ is the story of a young girl who fights to save her oceans; inspiring other kids to make a difference. Growing up, Emma suffered from eco-anxiety. In fact, the UK Office for National Statistics reports that 75% of adults in Great Britain are worried about the impact of climate change. Over the years, Emma connected with many grassroots climate organisations - normal people with a devotion to their planet who banded together to make a positive difference. For Emma, this was proof that you don’t need to be a Prime Minister, a billionaire or a celebrity to have an impact. This became her motivation for creating a children’s book: “There are a lot of books out there that educate children about the threats to our planet; but I didn't want to leave children in that sense of doom and gloom. I wanted to write a children's book where they could see themselves as the hero of the story, being the future leaders, decision-makers, influencers and protectors of the sea.” We share the same ethos at Smiley Movement: we need to raise awareness of the problems, but most importantly we need to focus on solutions. We can all take small, everyday actions that combine for a positive future. The book doesn’t only inspire children to make a difference; it is actively helping make a difference. Emma donates a percentage of the profits of her book to Rewilding Britain, an incredible charity helping to restore Britain and its natural life. Well done Emma! Thank you for inspiring the next generation of kids passionate about our planet. 📖 Buy ‘The Whale Who Disappeared’ on Amazon 😊 Follow Smiley Movement for more positive news stories from change-makers around the world. ♻️ Repost this story so more people can see it.

Pride month has come and gone for 2024. But since 2020, I'll never look at Pride month the same way again. Around this time of year we see lots of focus on positive imagery around Pride; people coming together in the streets to dance & celebrate. It’s great to see this positivity and this Pride, but I feel it’s a cathartic expression of real suffering that happens every day. I’m not a member of the LGBTQI+ community, so I can’t pretend to fully understand the deeper meaning behind this explosion of happiness and fun and colours. But I know there's still a lot of hatred around Pride. Society has a long way to go. This has even led some of our retail partners to cancel their Pride campaigns, for fear of retaliation or controversy. We're all unique for some reasons, and we're all hated for some of these reasons. People fear what is different. It’s called xenophobia, we’re born with it, as it’s the result of our evolution, the need to protect our tribe. But somehow, some of us are able to learn, think, change our perspective, be empathetic and switch off this innate pattern. I believe we should all be proud of who we are and what we believe in, as long as it respects the non-aggression principle. We should praise the LGBTQI+ community for paving the way, but I believe the message of the pride should also expand beyond a particular community. None of us should be mocked or insulted for what we’re born with, for our nature or our culture. I try every day to respect and love people for what they are; for their uniqueness. That's what makes the world interesting. If we were all the same, life would be boring. Our originality creates complexity & difference of opinion, but it also creates energy & excitement. Everybody is unique. We are all original. And we should all be loved for that. I keep this photo in my room as a reminder of my great friend Thierry, who decided to leave us far too soon on July 1st 2020.

Humanity needs the creative arts. They drive our culture forward. And more importantly, the arts are a powerful tool for young people to discover and develop their creativity & storytelling. They’re a way for us to express ourselves, to discover what makes us original and develop our own personality. Unfortunately, not everyone gets a fair go at the creative arts - plenty of schools can’t afford to focus on creative subjects, and many families can’t afford to send their children to creative clubs. Eastside is a youth arts organisation aiming to fill the gap, enriching thousands of young lives through art, culture and creativity. They’re working towards a future I deeply believe in - a future in which all young people’s creativity is valued, nurtured and celebrated. In 2022/2023, Eastside delivered 1,725 workshops reaching 40,173 young people. That’s an incredible result, one that is growing every year. If just one of those young people continues with a career in the creative arts, the future will be more positive. April Foolery is one of Eastside’s biggest fundraisers each year. Some of the UK’s big names in comedy (including Hugh Dennis, Jenny Eclair & Simon Brodkin) performed at the comedy and jazz event held in London’s Criterion Theatre. This year, the show raised over £29,000 for Eastside’s Lund Fund, a campaign for disadvantaged children. Bravo to everyone who performed and thank you to Matt Lane and everyone involved at Eastside Education. Follow Eastside or visit their website to check out one of their upcoming events and help young people discover the creative arts.

This project ticks all our boxes at Smiley: ✅ Creative new materials ✅ Future Positive sustainable product ✅ Sophisticated look with a great story ✅ Aligned to UN Sustainable Development Goals I’m also proud that all revenues from #TogetherBands support grassroots beneficiaries and NGOs that further the aims of the UN Global Goals. Like with every charity product we develop, we donate 100% of our royalties to the cause. Plus BOTTLETOP plant a tree and donate 3 meals to families in Brazil and Nepal with every purchase. Thank you Nachson Mimran for your ingenious idea for this collaboration and for introducing me to the team at BOTTLETOP & Togetherbands. Co-Founder & CEO Cameron Saul has incredible vision and energy to shift the culture. #TOGETHERBANDS – The symbol of the movement at the heart of the campaign are the 17 bands. The bands come in every colour of the 17 UN Global Goals. 🪡 The thread is made from Parley Ocean Plastic - recycled plastic intercepted from areas where it poses a threat to marine life and coastal communities. ⛓️ The clasp is made from Humanium - recycled illegal firearm metal retrieved from El Salvador. The bands are made by women working as artisans in Nepal who have been rescued from human trafficking, alongside others in the Amazon rainforest with the Yawanawa Indigenous community. When I see collections like this come together, I’m optimistic that we can make the Future Positive. This range is thanks to the great collective work of our Smiley Lifestyle consumer products team Holly Worley, Janet Martin & Gill Mackenzie, supported as always with world-class sophistication in design from Darren Green & Amy Sheridan. Buy a Smiley TogetherBand (or 2) and wear your support for the UN Sustainable Development Goals. Google ‘Togetherbands’ to find our new collection, available from today.

You’ve seen the co-working office, what about a co-working factory? BLOQS is the UK’s first open access factory. What a brilliant idea. BLOQS brings together a manufacturing space, a teaching space, and a communal connection space in the on-site cafe. Over 750 members share the space, machinery and services they need to grow their business - all on a flexible PAYG basis. The factory houses facilities for woodwork, metalwork, engineering, fabric and sewing, laser cutting and engraving, CNC routing and milling, 3D printing, or spray painting and finishing. A shared space like this is much more affordable for fabricators, results in much lower environmental impact, and allows access to more complex machinery and tools to create better products than would be viable otherwise. In this video, Co-Founder Al Parra explains how BLOQS is able to recover energy & reduce its footprint through smart re-use of waste. I love seeing entrepreneurial, creative solutions like this come to life. The reality is, we’re going to need innovative solutions to make manufacturing more sustainable long into the future. There’s also a great economic benefit to this approach - the BLOQS factory drives millions of pounds through the local economy in Enfield. Bloqs is now a centre for innovation in manufacturing, an education hub, and a cultural destination. Best of all, this is a scalable, replicable model for communities around the world to grow their own sustainable futures. Follow BLOQS on LinkedIn or why not pay them a visit if you’re in London!

The social team at Smiley has always done incredible work to support & showcase our partners. But the team lifted their work to a new level with the House of Smiley Coachella campaign. Earlier this year, we started working on a plan to expand our content creation beyond the UK. And we needed a vehicle to reinforce the heritage between Smiley and music culture via exciting social campaigns. This was the birth of ‘House of Smiley’. Rebecca (Bex) Whitley & Allyssandria S., supported by Reuben Thacker, Joshua D., Mark Cowland & the rest of our in-house team did an incredible job executing the campaign. Ally & Bex travelled to Palm Springs and nailed the brief, managing influencers, collections & content featuring 15+ licensees. Our licensees are the best and we want to be the best for them. Every piece of content from House of Smiley was packed full of positivity, creativity, sophistication & storytelling. Great work team. Watch this space for more Houses of Smiley in other music festivals and party places around the world. Who knows where we will go next!? Well, I do :)

The social team at Smiley has always done incredible work to support & showcase our partners. But the team lifted their work to a new level with the House of Smiley Coachella campaign. Earlier this year, we started working on a plan to expand our content creation beyond the UK. And we needed a vehicle to reinforce the heritage between Smiley and music culture via exciting social campaigns. This was the birth of ‘House of Smiley’. Rebecca (Bex) Whitley & Allyssandria S., supported by Reuben Thacker, Joshua D., Mark Cowland & the rest of our in-house team did an incredible job executing the campaign. Ally & Bex travelled to Palm Springs and nailed the brief, managing influencers, collections & content featuring 15+ licensees. Our licensees are the best and we want to be the best for them. Every piece of content from House of Smiley was packed full of positivity, creativity, sophistication & storytelling. Great work team. Watch this space for more Houses of Smiley in other music festivals and party places around the world. Who knows where we will go next!? Well, I do :)

Many people talk about creating a community through a brand. With Market , Michael Cherman has managed to achieve it. He's an incredibly talented entrepreneur and designer. It’s amazing to see Market evolve over the years, after making the brave decision to change the brand name from Chinatown Market. The Smiley Company collaborations with Market over years have been successful because we share a heritage. In the 80s & 90s, Smiley was a flea market brand. We sold cheap clothes and novelties in street markets, mainly through wholesalers based in the Paris sentier district. And it almost killed the brand. Since then we’ve elevated Smiley, creating luxury collaborations & more edgy streetwear collections. These partnerships bring our unique style and creativity to the forefront, and prove: The Smiley Company is a brand unafraid to take risks and push boundaries. In 2017 we launched our first collaboration with Market as a tribute to the flea market origins of Smiley. We created fun novelty items and graphic t shirts (check out Dennis Rodman with our famous basketball). Over time, our tribute to flea market culture has become a super cool, edgy statement. It's really incredible that we're able to embrace street market culture, something that almost caused our demise earlier on. It shows how the world has evolved, what was considered underdog or underground is now seen to belong to our common global culture. Mike is a visionary because he understood that. I love collaborating with Mike. He’s a character; always buzzing with ideas. And he's also very smart because he's brought good people into his business to develop it. Well done & thank you to Mike, plus all the team at Market including Allison Schmitz, Jason Kletzky & Nadia Mercado. We have a big new project launching with Mike in August - stay tuned!