Since the company was acquired by U.K.-based Boohoo Group in February 2017, Nasty Gal has been working to get its signature vibe back on track and regain the trust of its shoppers.
Today, it launched a 19-piece collection, meant to be a celebration of International Women’s Day. The collection was designed with New York–based artist JayDee, Instagram-famous for hand-painting vintage luxury accessories. It includes vegan leather jackets, denim jackets, T-shirts and totes, splashed with 11 custom graphics: flames and tattoo-look hearts intermixed with phrases like “Babes Against Bullshit” and “Girls Bite Back.”
“We’ve always celebrated women and style,” said Caroline Sill, Nasty Gal’s director of marketing.
It’s the first brand’s first collab since its popular second go-around with Courtney Love in November 2016. The first collection created with the musician sold out 10 months before.
An image from the Nasty Gal x JayDee collection campaign
Nasty Gal has experienced a tumultuous three years, punctuated by founder Sophia Amoruso stepping down as CEO in January 2015 and a bankruptcy filing in November 2016.
Boohoo Group, which also owns fast-fashion retailers Boohoo, BoohooMan and Pretty Little Thing, has been rebuilding the brand since last year, with the help of Nasty Gal’s veteran players. Among them: Sill, who’s worked for Nasty Gal for three years; Brett Spencer, creative director for eight years; and Tiyana Grulovic, hired on editorial director in early 2016. They’re part of the 10-person creative and marketing team that remains based in the brand’s hometown of Los Angeles, while the rest of Nasty Gal now operates out of Manchester and London, England.
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“Boohoo kept our team intact to make sure that, outward facing, from a customer standpoint, nothing would be different,” said Sill, visiting New York last month for the collaboration photoshoot. It wasn’t quite so easy: “The first three months were really challenging. Everyone noticed the difference.”
At the time of acquisition, Nasty Gal’s “1.0” model, as insiders call it, was seemingly overhauled overnight, becoming an international company with a new infrastructure, new teams and new operations. The company went exclusively e-commerce, quickly closing the two Los Angeles-based physical stores, and all inventory moved to private label, forcing those who shopped its Jeffrey Campbell and Love & Lemons styles to find alternative sources. “The only similarity was the name on the door,” said Sill.
An image from the Nasty Gal x JayDee collection campaign
It’s been an upward battle ever since, but one Sill said has tapered.
Getting the teams on the same page has required monthly week-long trips to London by much of the LA team, to meet with the local merchants and buyers on such topics as the product mix, the Nasty Gal shopper and voice (“non-prescriptive, aspirational and fun”), and the history of the brand — it started as a vintage store on eBay, and vintage references have since remained a constant.
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Pop-ups have been used to communicate different messages in the two markets: In early November, the brand announced its presence in London with a temporary shop on Carnaby Street. When its West Coast stores closed, a Nasty Gal–branded Airstream made stops throughout Los Angeles to combat any beliefs that “store closing” signs equated to the end of the company.
And Sill said she’s been implementing initiatives focused on combatting the so-called Amazon effect. (“The U.K. is not as affected by the whole phenomenon,” she said.) With one of her big projects for the year ahead — elevating the customer journey, by providing “white glove” customer service, faster and cheaper shipping options, easier returns, and a smoother checkout process — she hopes to give Nasty Gal a competitive edge moving forward.
Finally, she and the rest of the marketing team have adapted to working “a ton more” with influencers, a strategy Boohoo Group believes in.
It shows in Nasty Gal’s newest campaign, for the collaboration. Influencers including Caroline Vreeland (280,000 Instagram followers), Aureta (518,000 followers) and Shea Marie (1.1 million followers) of the blog Peace Love Shea are featured.
The planned influencer campaign was a main draw to the partnership for JayDee. “ I knew seeing all of these girls get together to do something bigger in the name of [International Women’s Day] would be special,” she said. “Plus, I’ve been a fan of Nasty Gal for years. They have a clear point of view, and they’re not afraid to speak up.”
Call it Amoruso’s legacy: She’s notoriously behind all things “Girlboss,” including the book (published in 2014), the short-lived Netflix series (2017) and the media company, launched in August.
As for Amoruso, Sill said the veteran team still hears from her — ”She’ll send us notes now and again, saying, ‘It looks really good’” — and even thinks of themselves as “her shepherds, shepherding the company forward as best as [they] can.”
Being under the Boohoo Group certainly helps. In January, it reported that group revenue for the last four months of 2017 had almost doubled year over year, reaching $308.6 million.
Nasty Gal recently opened a new office in LA, and Sill is currently looking to grow her marketing team. The company is also exploring new product categories, including activewear and beauty; while in NYC, Sill stopped by Deciem to get a read on what’s happening in hair and skin care.
“We’re working on new ideas and having conversations about the future of Nasty Gal,” she said. “It’s an exciting time for the brand — and it’s had nine lives already.”
