Nasty Gal’s journey from eBay vintage shop to $85M company to bankruptcy is one of the fashion industry’s most fascinating. The brand’s rapid rise to the top is largely due to the online shopping bubble that is now bursting and wiping out everyone from Aéropostale to American Apparel, but also due to the young social media mastermind who crowned herself queen of the Nasty Gal galaxy. Sophia Amoruso isn’t just the founder and CEO of a once-prosperous clothing brand, but the New York Times best-selling author of #GIRLBOSS, the host of her own podcast, and the muse of a new scripted Netflix show based on her 2014 autobiography.
As we learn in the new trailer for Girlboss, the show will follow a then-22-year-old Amaruso (played by Britt Robertson) as she starts flipping vintage threads on eBay. The first thing she lists is an “original 1970s East West calfskin motorcycle jacket” that she buys for $9 and ends up selling for $615. While IRL Amaruso has admitted that her first sale was a book she stole as a teen, the show doesn’t skirt around awkward truths. It touches on why she broke up with eBay — Amaruso was booted off the site for inappropriate promotion — and features at least one scene where she splits the crotch of her pants. Girlboss is executive produced by Pitch Perfect writer Kay Cannon and streams globally on April 21.
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Text Hannah Ongley