HIGH SPIRITS
PERSONAL SHOPPER EXTRAORDINAIRE GABRIEL WALLER TAKES US INSIDE HER (VERY PRODUCTIVE) LIFE IN LOCKDOWN
Wardrobe whisperer Gabriel Waller opens up her enviable inner world.
as plans for a global lockdown began to take shape, Gabriel Waller was grappling with difficult decision: whether or not she should stay put. Waller has been living in Sydney for the past few years, but decided to return to her family home in Queensland for the duration of the shutdown, running her highly successful personal shopping business remotely. It’s from here that she is photographed – a timely spin on our usual peek inside tastemakers’ worlds.
“My personal style is effortless but always polished”
“My family home reminds me of everything I love about Queensland,” Waller says. “The house is made with beautiful natural timber floors and has floor-to-ceiling windows that flood the rooms with natural light – it instantly boosts my mood when I wake up in the morning.”
Like so many of us, 26-year-old Waller admits her working wardrobe has shifted dramatically in the era of Zoom conference calls. “My personal style is effortless but always polished,” she says. “Pre-coronavirus, I would dress up for client meetings and appointments, but now I’m gravitating more towards pieces that are relaxed and comfortable.”
So, maybe not answering emails in an evening dress, but fabulous outfits nonetheless: an oversized sweater from Chanel was a recent purchase, as was a pair of fluffy slippers by The Row. Daniel Lee’s Bottega Veneta is another favourite (“His pieces are a work of art!”) – beloved by Waller herself and by her many clients, who include Rosie Huntington-whiteley, Hailey Bieber and Ciara. Her relationship with the brand is so strong that she was invited to attend its AW20-21 runway show in Milan this past February.
Waller has built a reputation on her uncanny ability to source rare or “sold out” fashion pieces for her clients. Her thoroughly modern business model – which sees a lot of communication take place through Instagram DMS and staff across different time zones – has kept her and her team relatively resilient to the effects of the crisis. “It’s very much business as usual – my team and I are still available 24 hours a day,” she says.
A notorious hard worker, Waller is using the lockdown to spend more time focusing on broader business strategy and exploring new technologies that could further digitise the shopping process. Above all, she chooses to remain optimistic: “We will ride this wave out together.”
“The house’s natural light instantly boosts my mood when I wake up in the morning”
“It’s very much business as usual – my team and I are still available 24 hours a day”