Dog walker uses lifesize Gordon Ramsay cardboard cutout to sell items on Vinted

A dog walker using a Gordon Ramsay cardboard cutout to model items on Vinted has said she is thankful to the sharp-tongued chef for “being my donkey and selling my clothes”.

Abbie Ford, who is based in Southampton, was given the lifesize cutout of the Hell’s Kitchen star, known for his meme-worthy comments to contestants on the show including “you f****** donkey” and getting someone to refer to themselves as an “idiot sandwich”, by her brother Ben Ford in 2022.

After being inspired by a woman on Vinted displaying her clothes on a Danny DeVito cardboard cutout under the name “dannydevinto”, she decided to set up the account “abbief95” on the online marketplace to showcase her unwanted items on her 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,” Ms Ford, who is a dog walker and also works as a cleaner, told the PA news agency.

“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 and 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 Ms Ford 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 Ms Ford’s “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 Ms Ford’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.

“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.”