It was a late rainy morning, and she came with her headphones on into Royal Café on Nelson Street in Newcastle. Unfortunately, it was a busy noisy morning there so we had to looking for another place for our talk. Our third attempt was right and we settled in Costa. All the time our little place in a corner was surrounded by her beautiful feminine strong scent and her kindness.
Virgit Canaz is originally from Ecuador but when she was 13-years-old she moved with her mom and brother to Amsterdam. Now she has living in Newcastle for two years.
A question about her childhood did make her smiling and she a little bit came back in her memories to her childhood in Ecuador: “yeah, I had a really beautiful childhood until I moved to Amsterdam. I mean it got even better but all my family stayed in Ecuador, so I was really good reunited with all of them.”
“I always just to be playing with barbies, and made the clothes for them It can sound silly or cliché but yeah it happened. I wish I could do it for myself but I couldn’t” she laughed. “I was always interested in fashion, because my mum she used to be very minimalistic, the way she dressed up. I used to wear her high-heels, you know put make-up on me, paint my nails, she always has been my inspiration in fashion.”
When she moved to Amsterdam, she discovered the fashion website lookbook.nu, where people can show their styles. Those days it worked like that someone had to invited you so that you could access to the website. She was successful about it and she remembers how she feel when it happened.
“OMG, I was like someone invite me, I want to be there, so someone invited me. I don’t even remember how it happened, but anyway when I got there I discovered so many talented people there like photographers, models, everyone were showing their style there, and I was like, OMG this is so cool, I would like do it”
Then she started searching people from Ecuador there but she couldn’t find anyone, so she decided that she would represent her country there.
“It takes time, you don’t grow up followers on a next day.”
Basically, her journey started there. She started to express her style, and slowly and slowly collaborations were coming to her blog. She says that a key to be successful with your blog is regularity. As much you post on social media or a blog, you have more followers and brands will notice you.
For 8 years of blogging she has worked with brands such as Kapten and Son, Boohoo, Bvlgari and Mulberry, Justfab, Nars, Charlotte Tilbury, Storm and Marie, Daniel Wellington and more.
To the question of which collab was her most favourite or special she answered: “The most amazing brand I worked with is Bvlgari, I got invited with them to nice events, I got nice gifts from them, I couldn’t believe it that they invited me.”
Actually, British brands led Virgit to come here and live in the UK. But back to her days in Amsterdam, she came back to her memories of beginning, how her style was transformed. As she mentioned her mom, she was very minimalistic and an inspiration for her but:
“When I started my blog, I used to wear many colours, matching many colours. Because living in Amsterdam, everyone was in black or grey, black or grey. And I was like, OMG I am so worried, I had to stand out. I wore red, yellow I was wild about colours. But great feature about living in Amsterdam is that nobody judges you. Because when I was growing up in Ecuador, I remember that when a girl had red shoes, she was bullied by others. As well, when I was back there when I was 26 and I was like amazed why all these women wear blue jeans, it was hot weather, it was boiling there, and I didn’t understand, but the men think about you in a perverted way there. So, I understood why and that was awful. I was growing up in that mentality but moving to Amsterdam, there people don’t care.”
“Even if people were just dressed up in dark colours there and I was like colourful rainbow, they actually gave me compliments.”
As she talked about it, we came to mental health what is an important topic these days. Her recipe how to feel good and avoiding to stress is: “I listen to classical music, getting into a nice bath, pamper yourself. Because when I am in the bath and listening a classical music, so I start to think about my life, what I do best what not, what I can do better, it is my own kind of mediation.”
Don’t forget to follow Virgit on Instagram at @preppyfashionist 0 she can be a big inspiration for you in fashion.
