Nasty Gal, mysterious insolence.
With a graffiti-style logo and a strong name, the Nasty Gal signature is self-explanatory. Aimed above all at bold, fierce women, the American brand, which has come to prominence in the last ten years, creates five exclusively feminine lines of clothes, shoes, accessories, lingerie and swimwear.
The queen of DIY.
The Cinderella of e-commerce, as some like to call her, Sophia Amoruso started her career in 2006 in the very heart of San Francisco. Aged just 22 and having led a far-from-sheltered life, Sophia’s only choice was to break free of her past as a dropout if she wanted to make something of her life. Clever and strong, the young woman hit upon the idea of selling on eBay vintage pieces, she'd found rummaging around in jumble sales and bought for next-to-nothing, which she had then painstakingly darned. That's how this "bad girl" of the neighbourhood achieved the impossible and raised herself to the rank of accomplished businesswoman. In just over five years, the Nasty Gal on-line store became a brand in its own right, and even created and distributed its own catalogue. Its founder, today at the head of a real fashion empire, can pride herself on being the symbol of a revisited version of the American dream.
Pursuing her modern-day fairy tale, Sophia Amoruso made some choices that were determined, not unlike her. Shoe Cult, the first collection of Nasty Gal shoes, launched in 2013. It would be closely followed, one year later, by underwear and swimwear. Whether it's shoes, ready-to-wear or leather goods, the label's mark, unlike any other, is immediately recognisable - nonconformity sprinkled with feminism, for women with strong personalities.
A multi-faceted brand
If the US fashion house has cleverly managed to show off its lingerie collections courtesy of the exquisite Emily Ratajkowski, it readily offered itself an even more sensational collaboration in 2016. The bohemian, rock'n'roll spirit of Nasty Gal can be found in a line of clothing signed Courtney Love, with the inevitably grungy overtones. One year previously, we were also able to discover the unexpected encounter between risqué Nasty Gal and the ethereal For Love and Lemons for a limited edition of eleven pieces with a tropical feel. At the height of her career, Sophia Amoruso is paradoxically just at the start. It was to the surprise of no-one that Nasty Gal found herself in bookshops in 2015, with Girlboss, an account of an extraordinary destiny, combining autobiography with coaching advice. The story was adapted for cinema in 2017, around the same time as the ready-to-wear label was sold to the English group Boohoo.
Original, sometimes garish, but always sensuous, Nasty Gal is a young brand on the rise. Amongst the label's iconic pieces, we will remember the following: