I get loads of people checking my Vinted since I used top TV chef to ‘model’ my clothes
A DOG walker has roped in TV chef Gordon Ramsay to boost her sales on Vinted.
Abbie Ford uses the cardboard cutout to model her items and has jokingly nicknamed the sweary celeb as her "donkey".
She was given the lifesize cutout of the Hell's Kitchen star by her brother Ben Ford in 2022.
After being inspired by a woman on Vinted displaying her clothes on a Danny DeVito cardboard cutout, she decided to set up the account "abbief95" on the online marketplace to showcase her unwanted items on her own unique model of choice.
Despite only setting up her account roughly five months ago, the 29-year-old said she has had a fairly consistent amount of sales, with everything from floral shirts to jackets being purchased thanks to the cardboard doppelganger.
"My brother bought me a Gordon Ramsay cutout because he knows how much I love him," Abbie, who also works as a cleaner, said.
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"I love how straightforward he is and I love watching Hell's Kitchen and all his other shows and I found it so funny when he called someone a donkey - it was so random.
"I actually bought my brother a Danny DeVito cutout the year before and then I saw the woman on Vinted selling clothes with a cutout of him.
"As my friends use Vinted a lot, I thought I would use my Gordon Ramsay cutout to model some of my clothes as I was thinking, 'how can I get people to look at my page?'.
"I just started hanging my jackets off him and I've sold quite a few things - some that are not modelled with Gordon Ramsay too - but I guess they might have clicked on my page because they saw him."
While the unique clothes model has helped Abbie, who is based in Southampton, sell several items, he is not quite designed to sport all of her unwanted belongings.
"I tried putting an oversized T-shirt on him and it just did not work as he was just falling because it was too heavy for him," she said.
"I was thinking of hanging some shoes off him but, again, I thought it would be too heavy, so I just advertise them without him.
"A shirt looks good on him though - I sold a shirt the other day and I think that was because he was wearing it."
She joked that even though the cutout is meant to be lifesize, the proportions are "a bit off".
"His head's a lot bigger than what a human head is, but I think the height might be just about right," she added.
Her quirky selling technique has caught the eye of social media users, with people flocking to TikTok to share their joy from seeing her "brilliant" Vinted page.
"It's nice that I brought a smile to people's faces because that's what life is about," she added.
"Who knew something boring like selling clothes could make people happy?"
When he is not wearing Abbie's clothes, the cutout is folded away and stored in her wardrobe to prevent the selling superstar from getting damaged, and he has also come in handy for other things over the past year.
"He was actually my Christmas tree last year," she said.
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"I called him Gordon Ramtree and I hung baubles and tinsel and lights off of him."
She said if the chef happens to find out about her Vinted page, she would most likely be "starstruck" but would find the courage to tell him: "Thank you for being my donkey and selling my clothes."
Vinted rules to be aware of
IF you fancy clearing out your wardrobe and getting rid of your old stuff on Vinted, you’ll need to consider the new rules that recently came into play.
If people are selling personal items for less than they paid new (which is generally the case for second-hand sales), there is no impact on tax.
However, since January 1, digital platforms, including eBay, Airbnb, Etsy, Amazon and Vinted, must share seller information with HMRC as part of a crackdown.
You're unlikely to be affected if you only sell a handful of second-hand items online each year - generally, only business sellers trading for profit might need to pay tax.
A tax-free allowance of £1,000 has been in place since 2017 for business sellers trading for profit - the only time that an individual personal item might be taxable is if it sells for more than £6,000 and there is a profit from the sale.
However, firms now have to pass on your data to HMRC if you sell 30 or more items a year or earn over £1,700.
It is part of a wider tax crackdown to help ensure that those who boost their income via side hustles pay up what they owe.
While your data won't be shared with HMRC if you earn between £1,000 and £1,700, you'll still need to pay tax as normal.