Luther star’s clothing line loses £216k in first year

DEspItE his box office appeal, Idris Elba still has his work cut out when it comes to being a fashionista.

Elba starred as drug kingpin stringer Bell in the wire, took the title roles in the film Mandela: Long walk to Freedom and the BBC series Luther, and is often tipped as a future James Bond.

But the 45- year- old actor, who earlier this year announced his engagement to former Miss Vancouver, sabrina Dhowre, 29, has just had a cruel reminder that success in any sphere is not achieved overnight. His latest commercial venture, shoot the Rehearsal, a retail clothing company he established in 2016, has got off to an inauspicious start. Its first full year’s accounts, just published, show a £215,999 deficit in its profit and loss account at the end of last year. However Elba, the company’s sole director, is unlikely, to see this as anything more than a temporary

inconvenience. He is also the director of four other companies, including Green Door Pictures, which had £2.34 million on its balance sheet, according to its latest accounts — more than enough to enable him to fund Shoot The Rehearsal as it finds its feet.

Recruited as the face of a premium range of clothing by the Superdry fashion brand when it was struggling three years ago, Elba had a transformative effect on its fortunes, helping its parent company to announce a jump in pre-tax profits of 53 per cent two years later.

If Shoot The Rehearsal takes rather longer to turn round, Elba will no doubt relish the challenge.

Explaining why he could so easily identify with the character of Stringer Bell — who treasured a copy of Adam Smith’s 18th-century masterpiece, Wealth Of Nations — Elba reflected that Bell was ‘ridiculously ambitious and courageous’.

Elba, who supported himself during his first challenging years as an actor by working night shifts at Ford’s Dagenham factory, added: ‘It’s all about not allowing the fear of failure to cripple you.

‘ I love it if you tell me I can’t do something.’