What is Nasty Gal made of?

Nasty Gal started as a vintage resale shop on eBay. Sophia Amoruso built it into a cult brand, wrote a bestselling book about it, and watched it go bankrupt. Boohoo Group bought the name in 2017 for about twenty million quid — a fraction of its peak valuation. What exists today shares a name with the original brand but almost nothing else. Modern Nasty Gal is a Boohoo sub-brand with edgier styling, the same synthetic supply chain, and the same relationship with polyester.

We looked at what Nasty Gal actually sells today in terms of fabric composition. If you're nostalgic for the vintage-era brand, this will disappoint you.

Nasty Gal Is Heavily Synthetic

Roughly 70-80% of Nasty Gal's current catalogue is primarily synthetic. The brand leans even harder into statement pieces and going-out wear than Boohoo or PLT, which means even more polyester as a percentage of total output. When your bestsellers are faux-leather trousers, mesh tops, and "satin" blazer sets, synthetics aren't just dominant — they're almost the entire story.

Polyester is everywhere. Dresses, blouses, trousers, jackets, co-ords — polyester is the first fibre listed on the majority of Nasty Gal products. It enables the brand's signature aesthetic: structured silhouettes, bold prints, shiny finishes. All achievable cheaply with polyester. All plastic.

Faux leather is a significant category. Nasty Gal pushes faux-leather jackets, trousers, skirts, and dresses hard. "Faux leather" sounds like an ethical alternative to animal leather. In practice, it's polyurethane (PU) coated over a polyester base — plastic on plastic. It cracks, peels, and can't be repaired. It's arguably worse for the environment than well-maintained real leather, which at least biodegrades eventually. Every faux-leather item in Nasty Gal's range is 100% synthetic.

Viscose makes occasional appearances in more relaxed, flowy pieces — particularly in warmer-season collections. But it's a supporting player, not a lead. Cotton is rare outside of graphic tees and denim. Wool is virtually nonexistent. Silk? At these prices? No.

Category Breakdown

Here's what the composition labels reveal across Nasty Gal's main categories:

• Dresses — Polyester dominates. "Satin" dresses, blazer dresses, bodycon dresses, mesh dresses — all polyester or polyester-elastane. Some wrap and midi styles use viscose. Expect 85-100% synthetic on most Nasty Gal dresses. The edgier the styling, the more synthetic the fabric.
• Tops — Overwhelmingly synthetic. Corset tops, mesh tops, crop tops, "satin" camis: polyester and nylon blends. Graphic tees are the exception — usually cotton or cotton-polyester. But graphic tees aren't what Nasty Gal is selling you in their marketing. The hero pieces are all plastic.
• Faux Leather — 100% synthetic, always. PU-coated polyester. Every jacket, every pair of trousers, every skirt. This is one of Nasty Gal's signature categories and it's entirely petroleum-derived. It looks good for about three months, then starts cracking and peeling.
• Knitwear — Acrylic-heavy, consistent with the Boohoo Group approach. Oversized knits, cardigans, and knitted co-ords are predominantly acrylic, sometimes blended with polyester. Actual wool is rare and priced noticeably higher when it does appear.
• Denim — Cotton-led, the one category where natural fibres dominate. Jeans are typically 70-98% cotton with elastane for stretch. Denim jackets follow the same pattern. If you want the closest thing to a natural-fibre garment from Nasty Gal, buy the jeans.

The through-line is clear: Nasty Gal's brand identity — bold, edgy, going-out ready — maps directly onto the most synthetic categories. The aesthetic requires polyester. The price point requires polyester. The result is a catalogue that's overwhelmingly plastic.

From Vintage to Polyester

The original Nasty Gal, the eBay vintage shop, sold one-of-a-kind pieces in natural fibres — actual silk, real leather, vintage denim, wool blazers. The brand had authenticity precisely because the clothes were real.

What Boohoo Group bought was the name and the customer base. The modern brand has no connection to vintage fashion. It's new-production fast fashion from the same factories that supply Boohoo and PLT, marketed with an "alternative" edge that the fabric compositions don't support. There's nothing alternative about polyester. It's the most conventional choice in fast fashion.

Nasty Gal does occasionally gesture toward sustainability with "recycled" pieces, but the volume is negligible relative to the full catalogue. A recycled polyester blazer is still a polyester blazer. It still sheds microplastics. It still won't biodegrade. The "recycled" label is a footnote, not a strategy.

How to Check Before You Buy

Nasty Gal lists fabric composition on product pages, but it takes effort to find. You'll need to click into each product and scroll down to the details section. When you're browsing dozens of items, that friction adds up — and Nasty Gal knows most shoppers won't bother.

That's what Fibr is designed to fix.

Fibr is a free Chrome extension that pulls fabric composition and displays it as a colour-coded badge on the product image. Green for natural fibres. Yellow for mixed. Red for mostly synthetic. You see the composition while you browse — no clicking through, no searching for fine print.

Nasty Gal support is coming soon. Fibr currently works on Zara, H&M, and Mango, and we're building support for the Boohoo Group brands including Nasty Gal, Boohoo, and PrettyLittleThing. When it's live, you'll be able to see exactly how synthetic each product is before it goes in your basket.

Until then, the manual method: open the product, scroll to "Composition" or "Product Details," and read the label. On Nasty Gal, if you're looking at anything other than denim or a basic cotton tee, the first fibre listed will almost certainly be polyester. That's the reality beneath the edgy branding.

Frequently Asked Questions

Is Nasty Gal sustainable?

No. Nasty Gal is owned by the Boohoo Group and operates as a fast fashion brand with the same predominantly synthetic supply chain. The vast majority of their products are made from polyester, nylon, acrylic, and polyurethane (faux leather). Small "recycled" collections exist but represent a tiny fraction of total output. The brand's fast-fashion pricing and trend-driven model is fundamentally built on cheap synthetic materials and rapid turnover — the opposite of sustainable fashion.

What fabric does Nasty Gal use?

Predominantly polyester. Nasty Gal's core categories — dresses, tops, co-ords, going-out wear — are almost entirely polyester-based. Faux leather pieces use polyurethane over polyester. Knitwear relies on acrylic. Viscose appears in some summer styles. Cotton is largely limited to denim and graphic tees. Across the full catalogue, roughly 70-80% of products are primarily synthetic at any given time.

Is Nasty Gal the same as old Nasty Gal?

Not really. The original Nasty Gal was a vintage resale business founded by Sophia Amoruso. After the company went bankrupt in 2017, Boohoo Group acquired the brand name and customer base. Today's Nasty Gal is a Boohoo sub-brand producing new fast fashion garments from the same supply chain as Boohoo and PrettyLittleThing. The vintage curation and natural-fibre garments of the original brand are gone. What remains is the name and aesthetic direction applied to standard fast fashion production.