Before I jetted off on my holidays to the Canary Islands two weeks ago, I attended the Nasty Gal pop-up store launch in London on Carnaby Street. Me. Yes, me!! I can’t believe it either.
It was a pretty BIG deal for me
If you’ve been following my blog for a while then you’ll know that I was given the #GIRLBOSS book by Sophia Amoruso last Christmas and read the entire thing in one sitting. You’ll also know how much of an inspiration it was to me and how it made me super focused on my blog. A few months later the Girl Boss series was released on Netflix and I loved seeing Sophia’s life story play out on screen.
After reading the book I’ve had mega respect and idolisation for Sophia Amoruso (yes even after she filed bankruptcy and was removed as CEO) and for what she has achieved. Even if she is not at the forefront of Nasty Gal anymore – I mean, who was to guess it would grow so big so quick?! – to me, she is Nasty Gal.
When I received the email with the invitation, it’s safe to say my jaw almost hit the floor.
Dress code
I assumed from the invitation that it was going to be a cool PR/press launch with the usual nibbles, drinks and a glance around the store and collection. Well boy wasn’t I wrong.
Myself and another intern headed to Kingly Court on Carnaby Street, straight from work to grab some food before the event cos y’know it’s good to be fashionably late, right? (We ate at Le Bab by the way and the food is amazing.)
We were a few stores away when we started to see a lot of flashing lights. Paparazzi. Who on earth could be here?! Once we reached the doors, it was Daisy Lowe that was having her photo taken and Dougie Poynter from McFly had just walked in before. This is the second event that Dougie and myself have attended together. We’ll call it coincidence. Third time and it’s fate. Maybe then I’ll finally have the nerve to go up to him. “Fancy seeing you here, Doug!”
We hadn’t even entered the store and already two celebs. We rocked up in our work clothes, great.
Once we got inside we saw the vibe of the event was ‘dress like you have 30,000 Instagram followers’. I’m serious, 90% of attendees must have had over 25,000. You know when you can just tell by looking at someone that they’re most likely famous on Instagram?
I got a tattoo
Temporary!! Before my mum reads this and panics. I have always wanted a tattoo though but it was cool to get the Nasty Gal logo printed onto my side and it remained there for over a week (very hard to rub off). I felt like my old edgy self again. Now to just re-dye my hair blonde.
After looking around for a bit, we headed down to the basement where there was a DJ playing and Raye was due to perform. The air conditioning was clearly broken as it was SO WARM. Our faces went bright red which didn’t help as we were now under-dressed and red-faced. Don’t look at me Dougie.
We recognised a few more Instagram people and Ella Eyre was also in the basement watching Raye perform. We had spotted a girl on the main shop floor who we thought had to be a model or a Nasty Gal ambassador as her outfit was very Nasty Gal – vintage and beautiful. I thought it looked like Jessica Serfaty, girlfriend of Ed Westwick but we had a scroll through her Instagram and Jess had much longer hair so we thought she was just a lookalike.
After Raye had finished performing we headed back upstairs to have a look around the clothes (and to get some air) and Jess Woodley, Lottie Moss, Talia Storm and Danielle Peazer had all turned up.
The best moment of my London (entire) life
The store had started to get a little more crowded, which didn’t help with the heat situation (my face was now almost scarlet) so we grabbed some more drinks and stood near the front of the shop. We were stood right next to Jess Woodley and Lottie Moss and their little gang and I was ever so discreetly trying to take some snaps for my snapchat when the best moment of my London life was to happen in the next ten seconds.
Before we get onto the best moment of my London life so far, let me describe the difference between my Snapchat and Instagram during these events. On my Instagram story you’ll find some artistic shots of what’s happening, making it all look very luxury, amazingly glamorous and very exciting, all while I’m (not) calm and acting professional. On my Snapchat story you’ll see videos and snaps of me freaking out at every celebrity or VIP that is in attendance (mainly with zoomed up videos of their faces), pictures of all the food and drink, the free stuff that we get and mainly just all the ‘behind-the-scenes’ good bits for my friends back home. My audience on Instagram and Snapchat are polar opposites.
Now onto the best moment of my London life. I don’t want to say my ‘entire’ life as I was front row at a One Direction concert a few years ago and well, I don’t really know what event could top that. Anyway, on with the story.
Alice and I were stood near the front of the store trying to cool down while I was trying to take some snaps of Jess Woodley etc. when Alice started freaking out next to me; ‘IT’S HIM IT’S HIM’. I quickly looked across and who was stood no more than one metre away from me?! It was only ED WESTWICK himself!!!!
When I say I forgot all about being subtle with my phone, that would probably be an understatement. In less than two seconds he had already made it onto my Snapchat story with my voice in the background saying ‘IcantIcantIcantIcantIcantIcantIcantIcant’ about a mile a minute, which when I tried to repeat later, I couldn’t – clearly the adrenaline had taken over. Once I had got some good quick videos of him walking in – he even tensed his jaw in one of my videos and holy god Chuck Bass was right in front of me – I realised my hands had been shaking the entire time and my heart was racing. I thought I was starstruck when I saw Dougie for the first time but this was on another level. And Dougie and I are regular acquaintances these days anyway.
It took me about fifteen minutes to finally calm down, but I still couldn’t believe that living and breathing Ed Westwick aka Chuck Bass had just walked past me and was at the same event that I was. Embarrassed of me, Alice moved us along further into the shop so I could stop staring, but guess who came and sat right in front of us in the lounge area?! We were able to stand and stare at Ed and his girlfriend (yep, it was his girlfriend we had seen earlier, she had just had a haircut) without it looking creepy. Well it still might have looked creepy but they sat down in front of us, so just purely coincidence.
I can’t tell you how many messages I received on my snapchat and Instagram all about Ed. I am such a huge Gossip Girl fan, having watched the entire series start to finish three times, so to see Ed Westwick in the flesh an arm’s length away from me was the most star-struck I have ever felt.
*Please note, this was a week before the news broke of the allegations against Ed, and I don’t want to downsize my elation as, at the time I was hugely excited and I want to give an accurate description of the event. I won’t comment on the allegations, however – all are innocent until proven guilty.
The London dream
I’ve only been living in London five months and I can’t believe the events I’ve been to and the celebrities that I’ve seen. The Nasty Gal pop-up launch was definitely up there with the GQ Awards and we were even given a goody bag on the way out. Now I have a Nasty Gal branded tote bag, phone cover and even a water bottle. I also took my drink with me afterwards so now I have a bright pink Nasty Gal cup in my house. Don’t forget I also left with the Nasty Gal logo imprinted on my side so I was basically a walking Nasty Gal advertisement.
I’ll definitely be popping back to have a better look at the clothes, as the clothes that we did see on the night looked amazing and were much cheaper than I thought they would be. Roll on next payday.
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