Beauty influencer and former Made in Chelsea (MIC) star, Frankie Gaff has signed to global influencer and talent management agency Follow for representation. The agency, which also represents digital talent including Chloe Lloyd, Mary Charteris, Pippa Vosper and Tia Ward will be working with Frankie on creating strategic relationships with brands. 

DIARY directory caught up with beauty and lifestyle influencer Frankie to find out how her brand collaborations come about, how she plans her social posts and why she left Made in Chelsea earlier this year.

"I know the brands I really believe in and like working with. The products I endorse have to mean something to me..."

You left MIC earlier this year... Would you ever return? 

Growing up I was very shy, so after meeting Jamie (Laing) organically, my whole world was suddenly on Made in Chelsea. With any structured reality programme, it was an amazing platform but was equally quite a stressful environment. In between each series, you’d get two weeks off where they won’t film at all. But other than that, they’re filming every day of the week. I am really grateful for the opportunities MIC has brought me but I'm excited to look ahead for what’s the next challenge.

I think I’m open to being on TV again, maybe something to do with cooking, but I think I want to keep some areas of my life a bit more private now.

Your brand partnerships seem to be going well...

I’m starting to get involved with brands and invited to things that I didn't previously get invited to. I recently went to Paris with Givenchy and it was an opportunity that I don’t think I would’ve necessarily got a few years ago. I completely cut a lot of work with posts from February to now and I think you always question yourself at the time but I can now see it’s paying off. I always want to think about the long-term goal rather than short-term collaborations. 

Authenticity - is this a top priority for you?  

When I first started, the response was quite overwhelming from such a wide variety of brands and I would be excited to do anything that came my way, but as I got older I got more of an understanding and I know the brands I really believe in and like working with. The products I endorse have to mean something to me, I only do authentic posts, like with SkinAid which is a product I absolutely love and have been using for years.

MIC's Louise Thompson recently breached advertising standards by not declaring Instagram partnerships – what are your thoughts on this?  

My representation has always been super-hot on putting the right hashtags so I’ve always known the parameters. I think #ad doesn’t have to be a negative thing.

How should brands approach you? 

My agent at Follow will pitch collaborations out but there are also collaborations that just come naturally where brands say they want to work with me.

Generally, the agency asks me what are my favourite brands and then we create a strategy. It’s all about having those tiers; my dream brands, brands I’d love to work with right now, and ones that I’d work with in a different capacity e.g. something more organic like an event rather than a standalone post.

It’s about that sort of alignment and moving forward, growing and elevating with my followers.

How do you plan your social media posts and what works for you?

I wish I could plan it better but I quite like doing it organically. I do sit there and look at my feed and think "Why did I post that? It doesn’t go!" but I think we all do that, influencer or not! There’s an app called Preview where you can see the grid, which I use sometimes. To edit, I always use VSCO or Huji.

Is a new brand on the cards for you? 

I’d love to do something with skin, maybe have my own skincare brand. I‘d want it to be something like 11SKIN, something I love.

I'd also like to write a cookbook, I love cooking and get a lot of interest in my recipes because I am gluten free. A lot of people do it quite expensively and you’d have to get 20 ingredients, I’d want to do it a little simpler so it’s cheaper for my audience.

What would be your dream collaboration? 

I’d love to work with Charlotte Tilbury or Bobbi Brown because their products are amazing!

Listed in DIARY directory in the digital influencers section, Frankie is one of over 1,400 categorised influencers that PRs could work with. Subscribers can sort influencers according to social media following across Instagram, Twitter, YouTube and Facebook. See our previous DIARY Influencers here!