From glad-rags to online riches: Cash-strapped Sophia Amoruso’s shrewd use of social media was core to her Nasty Gal fashion website

Last updated: November 26, 2013 4:51 pm

From glad-rags to online riches

By Elizabeth Paton

Rebel chic: Sophia Amoruso’s Nasty Gal has a cult feel while also developing mass appeal

In 2006 Sophia Amoruso was a down-on-her-luck young photographer in Pleasant Hill, California, taking stock of her life in her step-aunt’s pool house. Desperate to support herself, the 22-year-old started selling one-off vintage pieces she found in flea markets and thrift stores on eBay, building a small but devoted following using the then relatively newfangled concept of social media.“I’d left home at 17 and drifted up and down the coast for a while, working in art schools, record stores and even dumpster-diving – I saw myself as something of an anarchist,” she says.

“But I always had drive and ambition, and knew after quickly finding a core customer-base online selling these finds that I had also discovered a profitable niche in the retail market that no one else had grabbed yet.”

In the early days, Ms Amoruso did everything for Nasty Gal – the name she chose for her brand after a song by funk musician Betty Davis, the wild second wife of Miles Davis – completely on her own.

“I had no retail or buying experience whatsoever, but soon I was sourcing, styling, photographing, processing and shipping every single order myself from that teeny tiny pool house,” she says.

“I’m often asked now about my social media strategy, but the truth is there wasn’t one back then. I had no money, certainly not one for an advertising budget – I simply made use of whatever there was available to me. Social media sites like MySpace were a free way of developing an ongoing conversation and relationship with my customers. I just saw that a little before the rest of the crowd.”

Seven years later, Ms Amoruso’s once fledgling business has expanded beyond her wildest dreams. It long ago outgrew its original eBay platform and pure vintage sales, although they still account for about 5 per cent of revenues.

Instead, it offers a vast array of what she describes as “flamboyant, risk-taking” clothes and accessories at fast-fashion prices, on a website that blends e-tail with targeted editorial content. This has been achieved after an early battle to get the domain name, which originally belonged to a porn website. “I’ll concede that when I decided upon Nasty Gal I didn’t ever imagine I’d be using the name as often or as widely as we do now,” laughs Ms Amoruso.

What’s so nice about Nasty Gal?

Comments by Nasty Gal customers show how its understanding of their aesthetic, as well as how they shop and like to interact, is key to its success:
“I like that they use girls who are beautiful but could still be your friend – it means I look at clothes and can imagine them on me. I’m on the site at least 10 times a week, often just browsing but sometimes buying too. My mum hates everything I choose . . .  but I don’t care.”

Sophie, 15, New York City

“The quality is kind of in sync with the prices – I rarely keep anything for longer than a season. When I want to dream I look at their vintage pages though – they have incredible Chanel pieces worth thousands of dollars that are stunning. It’s not all fast fashion (but that’s the part I can afford).”

Gabriella, 22, Boston

“I always read the blog and I follow Sophia on Instagram. Most ecommerce pages offer you styling tips, but Nasty Gal’s are the coolest – I actually try to remember and copy them.”

Katie, 17, New York City

As owner-manager of a privately held company, Ms Amoruso declines to disclose annual revenues, but the figure is widely judged to be more than $100m.

Industry observers say one of the core secrets to Nasty Gal’s meteoric success has been its savvy understanding of what its young customers want – and exactly how they want it. With a consumer demographic made up of tech-savvy female “Millennials” – teenagers and tweny-somethings – Nasty Gal now counts more than 980,000 Facebook fans, 139,000 Twitter followers, 970,000 Instagram followers, 67,000 Pinterest followers and 129,000 Tumblr followers forming part of its rapidly growing cult fan base.

“It is not just about their provocative aesthetic, which perfectly caters to the experimental, sassy mindset of many girls of a certain age,” says Sarah Owen, an editor at WGSN, the trends forecaster.

“Sophia recognises that many Millennials are totally overwhelmed by shopping choices both on and offline, and long for guidance on how to express themselves and feel unique. She doesn’t just offer them clothes – she offers them the whole ‘rebel’ lifestyle.”

For her part, the striking-looking, tattooed and raven haired Ms Amoruso is passionately unapologetic about both her brand’s success and its often racy offerings to shoppers.

“I know there are critics who think we send the wrong message to young women and it’s a shame they have to be so literal about it. Fashion is, and always has been, a tool of self- expression and that’s what we give our followers,” she says.

“Our customers love us because we think and act like them. We know that for young women today the real world, shopping and social media all constantly collide and bleed together, so we approach and interact with them in exactly the same way.”

That insight, combined with a novel approach, inevitably attracted fervent interest from the investors and venture capitalists of Silicon Valley. Initially, Ms Amoruso was highly sceptical of the scene. She took several years to educate herself on exactly what any kind of funding might mean for her and for her company.

“I didn’t think I had anything to prove and didn’t need to raise money straight away. Our success spoke for itself, and I had watched a lot of flash, flush start-ups crash and burn because they didn’t use their funds appropriately,” she says.

In addition, she found the ignorance of some investors alarming. Many would reveal to her that they chose whether or not to invest millions in fashion-related technology start-ups based on the whims of their wives and daughters at home. “I needed someone I trusted completely, a good track record in the fashion space and understood Nasty Gal and the way I wanted it to grow,” she says.

That proved to be Danny Rimer at Index Ventures, who joined the Nasty Gal board last August after putting $50m worth of funding into the company. “I just saw a clear, genuine and authentic voice in Sophia and her incredible ability to build up a rapport with her consumer,” says Mr Rimer, a growth-stage investor in numerous high-profile e-commerce success stories including Net-a-Porter, Asos and Etsy. “She’s building a brand online – not just a retailing site – and blending social, commercial and editorial in an extremely astute way.”

He acknowledges that the “staggering growth levels” that Nasty Gal has experienced are likely to slow in time, but says he remains confident that the brand will continue to grow.

Now with more than 500 employees, many working from glossy new 55,000 sq ft offices in downtown Los Angeles, the company has grown by more than 500 per cent annually since its inception, helped in part by the leasing of a 500,000 sq ft warehouse in Kentucky. It has 600,000 customers in 50 countries, with more than 30 per cent of sales now occurring outside the US.

“I’m extremely proud of my life story, team and the evolution of our business to date,” says Ms Amoruso, whose plans for 2014 include releasing a memoir, #girlboss, as well as opening bricks and mortar stores.

“I didn’t ask to be a poster girl for e-commerce, but if I can inspire those other young entrepreneurs who didn’t get A grades at high school or attend some Ivy League to reach for their dreams, then that is a real honour, and a new, exciting chapter for me too,” she says.