We love these new kids on the underwear block and their sexy products so we caught up with Brian James to find out more about appearing on the programme.

You were on Dragon’s Den last night, so how did you get on?
Didn’t you watch the show?! I feel we did fine under the circumstances but it was disappointing that no-one decided to invest.

What was the atmosphere like during the pitch – were you nervous?
It’s very odd actually. There’s a lot of waiting around, especially before pitching, and you’re closely escorted everywhere, which doesn’t necessarily help your mood. It’s not as if you get five star treatment!

When it comes down to the pitch itself I think everyone reacts differently. In a real situation you’re not going to see someone looking visibly pissed off in front of you before they know what you’re about!

As far as nerves go – not really. But you do get a major adrenalin surge which, if you don’t generally do a lot of public speaking, is very disconcerting. The other thing that causes problems is that you’re very aware that six million people might see you cock-up. That would inhibit most of us.

The Dragon’s were in playful mood, do you think they enjoyed seeing something a little different?
Sort of. James Caan knew we were onto something but were nowhere near the stage of set-up where he could just jump on board and make money.

Duncan Bannatyne was ignorant to the whole market so there was nothing doing there. In fact, he made the most stupid comment of the whole pitch. We said we were getting some unbelievable high profile magazine publicity which no other small brand had achieved, yet he said, “They only want you so they can sell their magazines”. Er, we’re not exactly Tommy Hilfiger!

Theo knows it’s about being ‘Calvin Klein’ as opposed to little Jameswinston Co. He understood but still said no.

Deborah Meaden really has ‘something’. There’s just this school marm/sexy dominatrix thing going on there but she failed to realise our branding has changed as we got more familiar with our target market. Her comments that our branding was ‘all over the place’ was pretty silly as people nowadays get bored quicker than ever with bland sameness – especially at our level of market.

Peter Jones was a little too concerned with being the Simon Cowell of the Dragons but I suspect a nice guy in reality. Sadly, no appreciation at all, frankly.

I know at least two of them switched off when they knew our model Tom was going to take his clothes off. It made memorable TV though – which was the whole point!

Did they take your product as seriously as you wanted?
Perhaps two did – enough. Again, the others didn’t understand it, didn’t appreciate it and had no idea of our market and how it is being embraced by young trendy - key phrases which, being fair, don’t describe most of the Dragons - guys and gay men.

Straight men famously don’t buy their own underwear – were you worried that you’d be facing an uphill battle with the male Dragons?
Definitely! I’d say at least one was borderline homophobic and one other possibly a little ‘confused’ shall we say. The main thing was to be clear and honest about our circumstances and to get across the point that we are ready ‘now’ rather than the big mistakes we made starting off 22 months ago - they never make a balance sheet look good.

So which of the Dragon’s do you think will be buying some of your briefs?!
James Caan, odds on. Likes his suits and shirts ‘just so’ and I’ve seen his ‘Mediterranean styling on his yacht. He‘ll be sneaking onto the website but we’ll expose him, you’ll see!

What made you decide to go on the programme in the first place?
It’s just something we couldn’t pass up. We felt they couldn’t humiliate our product but we knew they might not ‘get’ what we’re doing.

It was also about our market positioning. We’re too small and have too little money (relative to the ‘big business’ set-up of successful underwear companies), yet we lead in innovation, packaging, fit, styling, marketing and our imagery has been regarded as the most ground-breaking in the industry so far. Yet we can’t even afford to go into patterned designs yet!

This isn’t my opinion; it’s what we’ve been told by magazines and blogs in the business over the last year. We just want to create an opportunity for a large audience to judge for themselves. We were also fed up with being used as an image guide library by the leading competitors and photographers - get your own ideas lads. Now everyone will associate certain imagery with us.

Let’s put it this way, I’d bet the head buyer of Selfridges that if he put our marketing imagery, ranges and packaging in his store we’d be the top independent brand seller within a month!

Earlier this year the programme's host, Evan Davis, was named as the most influential queer person over the past 12 months. What was he like and did you give him any of your underwear?
We didn’t meet him - they obviously use him sparingly either for guys who get investment or for wondering (using his very nice manner) why you’re such a total prat.

In the end, was the whole experience of appearing on Dragon’s Den worth it?
If it throws us into the public consciousness, then 1000% yes.

So what’s next for Jameswinston Co.?
It’s all about raising our profile to attract funding. We’ve done all this on a total shoestring compared to the millions spent by corporate brands. We’re proud of the impact we’ve had on our competition. We’ve got top quality product and innovation, unique branding, rave reviews and unreleased designs which would be ‘fire’ in this industry over the next three years!

We’re looking to create an opportunity with the right people and right production set-up to do this at a world - class level. So anyone looking to invest, we’ll gladly listen to your three minute pitch!

Find out more at www.jameswinston.uk.com and check out our Daily Brief!

Dargon’s Den is on Mondays at 9pm on BBC 2. Take a peek at www.bbc.co.uk/dragonsden for more information and don’t forget you can watch episode 4 up to a week after it was transmitted. www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer