‘I’m like an animal, basically,’ Bay Garnett is telling me over her kombucha and an oat milk latte, sitting in a buzzing little café near her home in Shepherd’s Bush. She is in a snug, oversized grey jumper worn under a boxy brown overcoat, with a handful of gold chains slung around her neck and a black leather Gucci horsebit bag by her side. Garnett has rightly been dubbed the ‘Queen of Thrift’: renowned for her fashion styling, avid promotion of all things second-hand, and her close-knit bunch of friends including Kate Moss and Charlotte Tilbury, who are always happy to lend a helping hand to the cause. Enthused and electrically animated, she is explaining the nature of the chase when it comes to charity shopping.
‘I’ve lost sunglasses and everything, because I will be in the market, see something I love and charge. All my clothes will come off on the floor. I’ll hear, “Whose are these glasses, whose is this coat?” behind me. It’s all a bit compulsive really,’ she says.
