The Fashion Bug Blog - Laura Wills #2 Being a mama is a slog, lucky there's 4 kids to flog

[ariannabrandolini]

Also her ex nanny steps in to help so technically it sounds like they have her around part time if she’s still being called on. Between the ex nanny and the housekeeper+nanny she actually has a staff of two then (I’m sure there is probably a cleaner that she didn’t mention)

Exactly! And, as has been said before, this level of help is hardly eyebrow-raising given her circumstances. What is VERY irksome is that she is downright dishonest about the help that she is getting - she deliberately misleads her followers about the amount of help that she has. She also doesn't often own up about the fact that her husband does a lot of the morning school run and that the children's grandparents are also very helpful. And the danger with this deceitfulness is that it can make other mothers feel a bit shit about themselves

 

[gollygally]

Laura you don’t get that thin by doing half arsed boxing/Pilates classes. Yes, consistency is key to a severely restrictive diet and potential eating disorder. Please stop lying to yourself and get some help!

Most mother of four I know get to the gym 4 times a week (sarcastic)…
Hate when she says she’s super organised, no Laura, it’s called money and help

 

[ariannabrandolini]

It stresses me out just thinking of keeping them clean.
They are all so expensive. At London Private schools do young children always get dressed in high end impractical clothes or do they still mostly wear next/M&S/ Jojo for preschool and nursery

Rule of thumb: the richer the parents, the less showy the childrens' wardrobes. My son is at school with a Guinness heir, and guess what, you'd never know as he wears M&S, Gap Kids, Petit Bateau at most. My daughter is at nursery with Pippa Matthews' son and same thing: low key clothing. I mainly like Zara/JoJo/ Trotters for party clothes every now and again. No one I know (in the Chelsea/Knightsbridge area) dresses their kids like Laura unless they are some crazy oligarch. She is living on another planet, and the way she so clearly uses her children and dresses them up as though they are her little dolls is just disgusting. Of course it is fun to dress up your kids in clothes you like, and I love putting my daughter in a fancy frock, but I generally let her choose what she wants to wear. And most women are not monetising their childrens' outfit choices like Laura does.
And the disservice she does women by pretending she just floated to France with 3 kids under 6 in tow...it is maddening, really, that she has acquired the following she has because I bet most people are completely fooled by her. I'm so glad she was rumbled by her so-called pal Olivia Rubin, because what she does is downright dishonest, and in many ways, very damaging.

 

[Duchesspink]

She uses a tripod. A lot of the photos are from the exact same angles.
I watched a girl set herself up a tripod in Manchester to photograph herself walking out of shops with bags.
I've never been so tempted to kick it over and tell her to catch a grip of herself.
We watched her do it 3 times at different stores. Just why?
These people aren't embarrassed at all

 

[willawallawooh]

My husband would think that I’d gone insane if I started posing like this on a date night

 

[neverwearblack]

So it’s a cycle of promote and spend. I guess my real issue is how can someone think nothing of spending that much on stuff (I couldn’t decide on the colour - buy both!!). The only nod to sustainability is a bit of re-selling. My husband is on the other extreme - loves a frugal life! I was just expecting it to be old money from her side or a hedge fund equity partner. Not a salaried employee.

Someone said upthread her husband earns 750k per year so between them they’re probably earning just under a million. Could easily afford the Chanel and Hermes bags on that, I’d say!

Maybe I am the one who is deluded as I know plenty of people with comparable household incomes and they live nothing like this. One or two designer bags. An extravagant holiday once a year or every two years - otherwise it’s more low key destinations. The rest on school fees, investments or as a buffer in case things don’t go as planned. Never, ever heard of anyone in this bracket spending £40k on a week in the Cotswolds.

 

[Pegsypog]

She’s all heart taking the kids to the water park after she’s taken them out parading the whole summer for her Insta content

 

[lll32]

I like Holly, she looked lovely at Ascot. MLS is all show though.

I really like Holly and her style, but it's been really grating on me since she said a few days ago that she moved her daughter's school so that she wasn't going to be in the same class as Prince Louis as she thought it was too much of a security risk as her daughters are so precious to her she wouldn't want them to go on school trips if he was there......ummm she's just as much of a child flogger as the others! I could work out where she lives, her kids names are quite distinct, and I know exactly what they look like....she is the biggest security threat to them, not being in a class with Prince Louis.

 

[Elconcerta]

I love the attempt to remind us not everything is perfect (or as perfect as it was before as she’s so quick to confirm that yes all three of her girls really did sleep like that)

 

[Nancy Knows]

That’s an illness. All that hoarding and not wearing things she has bought. What a dreadful role model for her children - consumerism and waste at its worst. Laura makes me feel like Superwoman

 

[Cheebachoo]

The Stratford Taylor woman is equally as bad. She doesn’t fool me. Ostentatious and excessive greed. Its her (husbands) money so she can do what she likes with it, but it doesn’t sit well with me on many level (morally, environmentally etc). I’m not sure who copies who (suspect Laura is doing mor copying though), but it does seem quite competitive between the two of them. Laura says she is going to the Maldives twice. Hannah has a holiday in the Maldives, then Mauritius. The clothes/style similar. Constantly trying to look like super mum…Just boring. Be yourselves ladies! And here’s a tip-if you are as wealthy as you make out you are, you do not need to pimp your life out on instagram. You do know you can have a holiday ‘off the record’!! Unless of course it’s gifted and then they’ll have to grift on the gram for it.

 

[ariannabrandolini]

I saw her today in Chelsea - she was posing for photographs literally outside my front door! There was a short woman with dark hair taking the photos. She was with Casimir and his ridiculous white pram. The whole thing was just so tragic. She spent around 15 minutes trying to get a good shot, and primping Casimir to make sure he looked just right. How sad when he grows up and understands that he was used as a prop like that. What a waste of his babyhood. I bet it’s even worse when she takes staged photos with the girls, who are not like pot plants any more. The whole spectacle was very funny, and also quite sad. I see influencers around my neighbourhood all the time, but rarely with a child prop.

On another note, has she moved house? Perhaps Nancy will have the heads up on this. It just seems so odd that she is spending so much time posing on random side streets in Chelsea if she is still living in Fulham. She is the only person in the year not to publish her address on the year group mailing list so I have no idea but I have a feeling she might have relocated.

 

[ariannabrandolini]

Hannah uses her girls A LOT I think! And sorry but their names always crack me up Wynter and Soliel? It’s like the Noveau riche versions Autumn and Summer Hannah is a lot more likeable than the other insta mummy’s though, I don’t mind her she’s got a bit more grown up class than the others and doesn’t try too hard to be like the 20 year olds.

….although I don’t think she’s in the billionaire bracket of wealth but I might be wrong. I’ve seen her out in london, she is tiiiiiny.

Yeah Soleil and Winter are stupid names (sorry, but they are). Hannah is not UHNW by any means. And remember her husband is at the peak of his earning potential as he is quite a lot older. They only live in a relatively small flat in Marylebone which is probably £2-3M. Yes, she is wealthy. But if she had mega bucks she wouldn’t be bothering with half of the ads she does, or showing so much of her girls in public.

She does strike me as having a classier background than Laura or any of the other Instamums. But there are plenty of examples of mothers at my daughter’s school where the mother doesn’t work and has a more lavish lifestyle than any of these try hard wannabes, but would die of embarrassment at the thought of flaunting it on social media. These women are setting up themselves, their husbands, and kids for public ridicule and they think the money they’re making justifies it. It’s such a shortsighted attitude.

 

[ariannabrandolini]

I also think it is quite ironic that she says, in one of her 'reflective' stories, that there is 'nothing more important than family and feeling safe', yet she is willing to jeopardise her family's safety by plastering them online for paedos and weirdos. But she's clearly a bit too dim to have figured that out yet.

 

[PinkFigs]

Exactly. And the “don’t sweat the small stuff” is probably a lot easier when you have a massive bank account/private health/unlimited resources/nannies taking away the stresses that the majority of the population might feel. Something like losing a phone or item, or having minor illness, running late due to public transport or working/ homeschooling at the same time can be a HUGE thing for others without her resources. Such a smug suggestion when to so many people, small things are actually really big things with knock on effects

I get so sick of wealthy instagrammers trying to dictate to us all about 'not sweating the small stuff' or 'collect memories not stuff'. Like you say, it's easy for them to say those things when they've got resources at their disposal and can afford to buy or do whatever they want. Another wealthy instagrammed, Jayde_Jenson_Rocco recently went on a luxury trip to Dubai and posted a photo of her dolled up like a dogs dinner in designer gear declaring we should all 'collect memories not things'!

 

[Dizzy]

She could not look more of a fucking prick posing in all that utterly naff branded shit. What a bastard cringe.

 

[mummysnanny]

She must be forgetting her previous lies. She’s admitting they are travelling with help and also that she gets her hair done multiple times a week. It also seems like Casimir is the first child she’s had who actually acts like a child.

 

[bella8282]

That’s gross because you know Hannah can more than afford it. Still, suppose she can buy more Chanel bags if she doesn’t have to buy a bed.

She “seems” like a good Mum and then exploits her 12 year old to make money she absolutely doesn’t need to buy yet more Hermes. I think it was a really really bad move and the mask slipped a little. Let’s hope she donated it so at least someone benefitted from the cringe ad.

She is one of the worst offenders for monetising her children IMO. Far worse than Laura.

I think they are as bad as each other. It’s awful anyone exploiting their children on social media. But when you are as wealthy as they are, it’s unforgivable and unbelievably risky.

 

[ariannabrandolini2]

I’ve said this. I don’t know how a journalist hasn’t picked this up. They are creaming a living selling a fave life. Hunters and heels / bylaurenmcdermott is another one.

Not sure if anyone also reads the Lorna luxe threads but it’s obvious she does fake giveaways to increase followers. It’s fraud and it needs the spotlight shone on it

Omg seriously! Why hasn’t this been picked up by Netflix?! It would be a bestseller, alongside the Tindler Swindler! I can see her being featured as one of the characters. This is Laura Wills. She portrays her life as though she has a mansion in Belgravia but lives on a gritty street in Fulham. She looks like she spends millions but most of what she flaunts is gifted. She’s spending her days looking after her 4 young children but actually has a cleaner, a nanny, and lots of help from her mum (and in fact spends those hours on photo shoots and trying on different clothes she was gifted for free).
And she peddles this lie to her Instagram followers, most of who likely don’t realise the full extent of the fictional Instagram persona that Laura has created.

Also, as a self employed influencer, she’s claiming tax deductions on many of her expenses, including clothes, travel, and hotels, meaning that a lot of the things that she shows on her website end up being much cheaper for her than for the rest of us (how ironic!).

Here are some websites explaining it:

Tax deductions for influencers – TaxScouts

As a new profession, you might think that there aren't tax deductions for influencers. But for HMRC, you're treated like any other self-employed worker.

taxscouts.com

and

Tax Deductions for Influencers: A Guide | Alexander & Co

Read our article for all the information you need regarding tax deductions for influencers and online content creators. Contact our influencer tax advice team.

alexander.co.uk

Here are the types of expenses that you can claim for to reduce your tax bill (when they relate directly to work activity).

• Software (it could be email marketing software or image editing tools
• Subscriptions like stock image providers
• Marketing activities (from paid advertising fees to giveaways)
• A proportion of household bills that account for any increased working from home costs.
• Office costs (rent, chairs, desks etc)
• Equipment like computers, cameras, or laptops (if they are solely used for work purposes)
• Travel expenses (from airline tickets and train tickets to petrol costs incurred from travelling to alternative places of work, such as photoshoots or to undertake blog reviews, but not to your regular place of work)
• Accommodation (this only applies to hotels whilst working away from home as well as away from your usual place of work)
• Music licenses and music purchase fees, such as for use on your social media posts
• Non-gifted purchases that you bought yourself solely to review (and not subsequently used for personal use)
• Agents fees and commissions

Sorry for the loooong post- I posted two separate ones but it seems that tattle merged them into one!

 

[Chatterbox2412]

Her account was a little bit of escapism for me, the blingy outfits and date night dresses

I never followed her for relatability our lives are worlds apart and that’s fine

since she’s started Documenting the kids her account is just a complete mishmash. She’s shilling Amazon fashion and river island whilst spending 10 of thousands on Hermes and Chanel. She’s a fraud.

who even behaves like that on a family holiday? Rolling on the sand in an almost 2k dress?! Bizarre

her account doesn’t have the mystique it once had so I’m afraid I’m out

I agree with this 100% - it was like when you watch these programmes about the Super rich, it’s pure escapism. I did also like that she would but super expensive dresses but like some high street duped for people like me. However I do think she has lost her mojo, lately, her account is all over the place with no real USP - as you said, buying Hermes dinner plates one day then linking £7 Amazon leggings the next - find a lane and stay in it.