She has undeniable cult-status across Facebook and Instagram; Nicole Warne, aka Gary Pepper Girl, is one of Australia’s most popular and well-respected style bloggers.
But, it’s not just her immaculate sense of style and beautiful photographic aesthetic that has catapulted Nicole to the top of the digital popularity charts; her business savvy attitude and loyalty to both her style and her followers has afforded her e-com store garypeppergirl.com huge financial success as well.
Nicole sat down with Style Editor Lizzie Renkert for a chat recently…watch the full interview above.
Lose yourself in these stunning images from garypeppergirl.com
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Nicole Warne is an ambassador for Lavazza and is the first global ambassador for Donate Planet, the global online donation hub.
Photo Credits:
Photos of Nicole Warne at MBFW courtesy of Michael Theodoridis Cyclone Imaging
Lizzie: Why Gary Pepper Girl, where did you get that name from?
Gary Pepper Girl: I do wish the story was alittle more exciting but my boyfriend actually came up with the name. Luke Shabot actually had a lot to do with the start of Gary Pepper so he really inspired me and encouraged me to start my own business, he really gave me the confidence to believe in myself so I find it sounds quite boring but its actually a really fitting story I owe a lot of the beginning of Gary Pepper to him.
Lizzie: And it really did start vintage, didn’t it?
Gary Pepper Girl: Yes it did!
Lizzie: Its obviously evolved a lot since then… Is your true love vintage fashion?
Gary Pepper Girl: I think my love is always fashion. I would always change my outfits two or three times a day when I was younger and then when I was in trouble I would just take all my clothes off and rebel. I always had a really strong love for fashion but it wasn’t until high school that I fell in love with vintage because I wanted to be a little different to everyone else, a little more unique so vintage offered that and after I finished and graduated high school, I just had accumulated so much vintage so I thought it made sense to start a business. I really felt I had a skill at creating beautiful vintage and I launched with an E-Bay Store and had a fashion blog launch on the same day so the E-Bay store evolved into its own E-commerce site after 12 months. It was a company with three to four full time staff and the blog was more of a hobby and just as time evolved and past, I had to choose between the two. I still love vintage I will always be loyal to vintage so I feel it was more fashion and thats where my passion lies. So I still get to do that with my blog.
Lizzie: And in terms of the financial side of blogging, lots of bloggers would be wanting to be really successful but haven’t reached your success at all. Are there any challenges there or is it really positive?
Gary Pepper Girl: I think there are always going to be challenges when your freelancing so we don’t have the stability of being paid on a salary unfortunately. I think it makes us drive to work even harder because obviously with this lifestyle its expensive. Everyone thinks its paid for but we invest it all ourselves. I did one sponsorship for Fashion week and I’m glad I did it as it taught me it just wasn’t for me.
Lizzie: So will go back to funding things yourself, and doing independent jobs and when your on location?
Gary Pepper Girl: I explain it like freelancing. So in Fashion week you obviously have to be there, its a great time to catch everyone in the same city but you know your running a business, its an investment thats the way I justify it anyway and it really makes me find the content when I’m over there because I have spent so much money to be over there. Like we said there are misconceptions, everyone thinks its really easy, you get flown everywhere and it is really really hard but like any industry you just have to work hard and make it work!
What’s your favourite garypeppergirl.com image in the gallery above? Tell us in the comments below!
Loved this interview – love the relaxed interview style, and learned lots about Gary Pepper Girl. Will be watching more!
another asian with heavy make up so boooring
they all look the same (: