The Tamesis
Welcome to The Scoop: a weekly email series in which I ask fashion insiders about the week’s stories. This will be a way for the Vogue business community to synthesize and reflect on the latest headlines every Friday and get a little inside scoop.
This week’s guest is a fashion purchasing pioneer Fashion Columnist Gabe Waller. Gab, originally from Australia, was shopping on Rodeo Drive while on vacation in Los Angeles in 2018 when she realized the inventory there was very different from what was available at home. Three months later, she launched her fashion buying business and coined the term “buyer.” [someone who sources highly coveted items] Part of the luxury vernacular.
Three months later, Rosie Huntington-Whiteley posted about a coat Gab purchased for her. The rest is history. Gab now has 12 employees working and sourcing for her around the world, and is writing a book about sourcing. I called her to talk about the book and more.
Hi Gabe, any scoop?
The real scoop is that the fashion sourcing industry is booming. My team and I have never been busier; our customers are shopping more than ever. Procurement has really exploded in the eight years I’ve been working in it, which is why I’m writing my first book. This will be the first book about fashion purchasing, which until now has been somewhat of a mystery about how it works. Like, “How do you get these pieces? What are the requests you get?” I found that people were fascinated by this information, so I put it all into my own script.
It’s so interesting to hear you say that people are shopping more than ever. We don’t see this in most earnings reports. Who is shopping? What do they buy?
It’s hard for me to narrow down my clients into a core group of people because the range is so broad. Of course, it is people over 30 years old with high discretionary income and the ability to spend. But there are also 20-somethings who are reluctant to shop in stores when buying their first handbag, preferring to shop on social media. Almost 80% of our requests come through Instagram DMs. For those of you who don’t have social media, we do get requests via email, but that’s only a small part of the business.
What do you mean they don’t want to go to the store?
The in-store experience has changed slightly over the years. A key factor is queues; people wait in line for more than 30 minutes, and often when they enter the store they are told the product is sold out.
What is the hottest item or brand for you right now?
Chanel definitely dominated our requests. It has been my most requested brand since I started working eight years ago. However, since Matthieu Blazy came on board, I’ve seen a surge in demand. Their footwear is doing really well, followed by handbags. Developments in ready-to-wear are slow at the moment, but that’s not to say that won’t change when his next collection launches.
