Everyone has their own sense of adventure. This is none more evident than within my group of friends. For some of us, a taste of it was in booking our first girls holiday to whatever was the party island of choice, or pitching a tent at Glastonbury as festival novices at 18. For others, it came when heading off to University at the other end of the country, or opting instead to go travelling. Since graduating, some of us have ended up on other sides of the globe, while the rest have pursued careers in finance, PR, fashion or law. Others are studying masters, or even taking out a second degree.
I am part of the group that has ended up in London. I did not take a gap year. I have never been ‘travelling’, by which I mean to say, I have never stayed in a hostel, or endured an 18-hour coach journey, or ‘found’ myself on a beach at 3am with a group of strangers. It isn’t my scene. It isn’t my idea of adventure. No, for me, that has always meant one thing: moving abroad.
It is for this reason that I am fascinated with women who have done just that. Who upped sticks, followed their gut and found their dream role in a city that is far from local. Someone who stands out for this, is Tove Westling, founder of Varg PR. Having brought the Scandi fashion scene to London, you now wouldn’t question her place in the local fashion tapestry, however it wasn’t until 2006 – after stints studying in the city and in New York – that she made her move from Stockholm to work as the In House PR Manager at Day Birger et Mikkelsen. “I didn’t have my heart set on London particularly, but when the opportunity presented itself it just made sense. I didn’t have anything tying me down and it seemed like a “now or never” moment which I decided to go for. Plus, I jumped at any chance of working on a bigger arena than what the Swedish market offered at the time.”
“The biggest challenge for me was finding the every day life balance and learn to relax in a new environment. In the beginning everything is so new that it’s impossible to chill – the feeling of having to experience, learn, and meet people is overwhelming initially. I was lucky to make a couple of good friends on my first job, but working in a small company limits the amount of people you naturally hang out with. I think it would have been a lot quicker if I had worked in a bigger agency. However, as soon as I started Varg I changed my role to a more social one.”
When prompted on how she managed to crack the local industry landscape, she answers plainly, “I basically followed my gut and just got on with it, making sure to build relationships and grow the brand in the only way that I knew how to – genuinely caring about the brand I represented and having a strong interest in getting to know people, embracing the challenge. It worked.”
Another girl to arrive on the London scene from foreign territory was Laetitia Wajnapel (AKA Mademoiselle Robot, @mellerobot). She travelled from Le Marais in Paris to London chasing romance, “I’d met this boy and wanted to go and spend a few months with him over the summer”, but stayed for the inspiration she found in the city’s surroundings. The move was spontaneous – “probably the most impulsive thing I ever did” – despite her knowing the city well and already being fluent in English. The tricky part? Work. “For the first few weeks I carried on writing for French publications, and when it became harder to chase my monthly cheques I worked in bars to make ends meet. Being a young journalist in a new city isn’t the easiest.”
Kate McAuley, a native aussie who grew up on the Northern beaches of Sydney, also made her first move abroad for love – to Japan. “A boy I was in love with was moving to Kanazawa to study for his PhD. I didn’t think twice about it.” Here she taught english, presented a TV show and moved to a tiny island for six months to assist in coral reef research, before moving on to Papua New Guinea. There, she met her husband-to-be, “at a SCUBA diving school.” It was also where she began her career as a journalist, writing for Australian newspapers. Since then, there have been posts in Singapore, India, Cameroon, Dubai and, for the last few years, London. But the nature of both Kate’s and her husband’s roles mean they could end up anywhere. Her advice before moving? Read up. “As soon as we’d zeroed in on a country, I’d get myself to the nearest bookstore and read everything I could on my potential new home.” For someone who has moved so much, Kate says that the best aspects remain the same. “Meeting new people. Eating different food. Discovering new places. These are the most exciting things.”
“Getting to meet new people, find all my favourite new spots and getting to see everything with fresh eyes”, agrees writer Jill Hilbrenner, on what she loves about a move. Having grown up in a tight-knit community in Missouri, she picked up the bug for travel after spending a year in London during her junior year studying journalism. Youth, she says, definitely helps when relocating, “you feel like no challenge is too big. I was willing to try anything, almost always said yes to a meeting and wasn’t afraid to ask for what I wanted.” In 2010, she moved again to New York, which, with experience, she admits was easier – “you learn what to expect.” Her advice for those on the fence? Give it a shot. “The worst that’ll happen is you’ll look back and say, “I took a chance.”
Photographs of Tove Westling by Paul Whitfield exclusively for The Lifestyle Edit with art direction from Naomi Mdudu.