As a celebrity, you may always get seated at the best table in the restaurant, or cut the line of any queue. But no matter how famous you are, ‘sold out’ means sold out for everyone, even if you’re an A-lister.
However, if you know the right people, that doesn’t always mean you can’t find it. Gab Waller is the Australian-born fashion sourcer that celebrities such as Khloe Kardashian, Rosie Huntington-Whiteley and Sofia Richie Grainge have on speed dial to track down elusive designer goods.
Unlike a fashion stylist, who curates outfits, or a fashion buyer, who shops for the ultra-wealthy, fashion sourcing is the task of locating hard-to-find luxury items. Whether you’re looking for something in specific colourway that’s only available on the other side of the world, or it sold out in a matter of seconds, a fashion sourcer will scour the globe and reach out to their extensive network to track down your dream item.
Gab’s natural finesse to track down the impossible landed her first-ever celebrity client just six months into launching her fashion sourcing business. When model and actress Rosie Huntington-Whitely took to Instagram to share a fashion dilemma, Gab made her own magic happen. Rosie had posted on Instagram that she was desperately trying to hunt down a coat from Celine’s 2017 fall collection to no avail.
“I saw the story and said, ‘I know exactly where I can find that coat’, but I had no way to contact her,” Gab lamented.
“I left it for about a week, but then a girl who was following me reached out to tell me that she was speaking with Rosie about the Celine coat and asked whether I could find it.”
When Gab tracked down the coat and shipped it off to the star, she asked whether Rosie could mention her business.
“Not only did she do a ten part Instagram story but she also put it on her feed…that changed everything for me.”
Gab Waller has always loved the thrill of a hunt. The intoxicating high of tracking down an impossible-to-find item was not only something Gab loved, but it became a commercial skill that has quickly put her in a league of her own.
The Australian-born fashion sourcer has built an online empire from her nifty ability to track down some of the most coveted designer goods in the world. But at first, she never could imagine that this skill could become a full-time reality for her.
Originally hailing from Rockhampton, Queensland, Gab always knew that her career would exist in the realm of fashion, but she was just unsure of where or how. During this period of uncertainty, Gab worked in numerous fashion internships, government jobs as well as in furniture.
As is the case with most industries, Australia’s proximity from the rest of the world can often mean that we lose out as fashion and trends disseminate and trickle down from North America and Europe. Gab particularly noticed this on a trip to Los Angeles where she recognised that we were only receiving a fraction of the designer goods that were available in the United States.
It was here that Gab began forming the idea of becoming a professional sourcer for designer goods.
“That was my epiphany moment,” Gab tells The Weekly. “Back then, I never referred to it as sourcing, I looked to myself as maybe a personal shopper or a stylist…it wasn’t until a few months in that the term ‘fashion sourcer’ began to resonate most with what I was doing.”
Whilst many years ago, a service like this was once a secret amongst the uber-wealthy and A-lister elites, it has now been democratised by the likes of Gab Waller. Though she’s become a staple contact for celebrities like Khloe Kardashian and Sofia Richie Grainge, Gab also takes sourcing requests from everyday fashion-lovers through her business Instagram page.
However, to chalk the early days of Gab’s work purely up to ‘luck’ would be to undersell her finesse and dogged hard work. In fact, Gab made her own magic happen.
In 2018, the Balenciaga Triple S sneakers took the fashion world by storm – quickly selling out across the globe. At the time, Gab was trawling through various fashion-focused Facebook groups when she came across Holly, who was desperately searching for a pair of the coveted Balenciaga sneakers.
“I messaged her and told her that I can find these,” Gab recalls. “She gave me a shot and an opportunity to prove what I can do.”
Gab reached out to Alexandria, an Australian acquaintance who, at the time, was working in fashion in London. By chance, Alexandria had just received a shipment of the sneakers and secured Gab a pair for her very first client.
Though Gab’s foray into the world of fashion sourcing began a mere five years ago, her foraging skills, eye for fashion and tenacious determination has quickly carved her as someone to watch.
