Welcome to the Scoop: a weekly email series in which I quiz fashion insiders on the stories of the week. This will be a way for the Vogue Business community to synthesize and reflect on the latest headlines and get a little inside scoop every Friday.
This week’s guest is fashion sourcing pioneer and Vogue columnist Gab Waller. Originally from Australia, Gab was on vacation in LA back in 2018, shopping on Rodeo Drive, when she realized the stock there was very different from the product offered back home. Three months later, she launched her fashion sourcing business and made the term “sourcer” [someone who sources highly coveted items] part of the luxury vernacular.
Three months after that, Rosie Huntington-Whiteley posted about a coat Gab had procured for her. The rest is history. Gab now has 12 people working and sourcing for her around the world, and is in the process of writing a book about sourcing. I called her up to talk about the book and more.
Hi Gab, what’s the scoop?
The real scoop is that the fashion sourcing industry is booming. My team and I have never been busier; our clients are shopping more than ever. Sourcing has really exploded in the eight years I have been doing it, which is why I am in the process of writing my first book. It will be the first book on fashion sourcing, which has so far been a little bit of a mystery in terms of how it works; like, “How do you obtain these pieces? What are you getting requests for?” I find people are fascinated by that information, and so I’m putting it all into my own playbook.
It’s so interesting to hear you say that people are shopping more than ever. It’s not something we see reflected in most earnings reports. Who are the people shopping? And what are they buying?
It’s hard for me to summarize my clients into a core demographic because the spectrum is wide. It’s certainly the high discretionary income of 30+, who have the ability to spend. But there are also 20-somethings buying their first handbag who do not feel comfortable going into stores and would rather shop on social media. Almost 80% of our requests are received through Instagram DM. For anyone who doesn’t have social media, we do receive requests via email, but it’s a smaller part of the business.
What do you mean they aren’t comfortable going into the stores?
The in-store experience has changed slightly over the years. A key factor is queues; people spend over 30 minutes waiting in line, and often, when they make it into the store, they are told the product has sold out.
And what are the hottest items or brands for you at the moment?
Chanel is absolutely dominating in our requests. It has quite consistently been my most requested brand ever since I began eight years ago. However, I’ve seen an explosion in demand since Matthieu Blazy took over. It’s their footwear that is doing really well, followed by their handbags. Ready-to-wear is slow at present, but it’s not to say that it won’t change when his next collection drops.
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