Entertainment
Love Island’s Tasha Ghouri rules out working with fast fashion brands: ‘To me, it’s not about money’-Louise Griffin-Entertainment – Metro
Fast fashion used to be a rite of passage for Love Islanders – but things have changed.
Tasha Ghouri opened up about fast fashion (Picture: Getty / PA
Love Island star Tasha Ghouri has insisted she won’t work with fast fashion brands, despite it almost being a rite of passage for many past islanders.
The star, who reached the final of this year’s series with her boyfriend Andrew LePage, played things a little differently when she left the villa – rather than following in the footsteps of stars like Molly-Mae Hague, and even Gemma Owen from her own series, she opted for a partnership with eBay.
Chatting to Metro.co.uk about whether it’s a hard and fast rule for her to never work with fast fashion brands, Tasha explained: ‘I think for me, I’m focusing on pre-loved and small businesses, there’s some amazing small businesses out there that I love wearing.
‘So, for me, I won’t be going down the fast fashion route. I’ll be focusing on pre-loved, and small businesses. To me, it’s not about money and all these other things, It’s about what makes sense to me, about what can be amazing and what feels organic to me.’
Tasha became the first deaf islander to ever appear on the show. While she has been widely praised, and has continued to use her platform to speak about the deaf community (she chatted to us just after unveiling a sculpture celebrating the work of deaf rapper Signkid), it’s definitely not been an easy road.
During her time in the villa, her dad Tarek had to share a statement in response to horrific trolling, explaining how difficult she might be finding things.
Tasha has been smashing it since leaving the villa (Picture: David Fisher/Shutterstock)
Tasha explained that, since she came out of the villa, ‘there’s been so much love and positivity, it’s massively outweighed the trolling,’ and now she’s actually ‘thankful’ for the trolling.
‘I honestly don’t see it in my everyday life on social media or anything. I think the TV show is so nationwide, some people are gonna experience trolling,’ she added.
‘The way I look at it is I’ll never stoop that low, that’s not the kind of person I am, and I’ll turn that negative into a positive, I’ll do better, it gives you that motivation to work even harder.
‘If anything, I’m quite thankful for the trolling because it’s given me that energy to work even harder and prove them wrong.’
Boyfriend Andrew has also been her ‘rock’ and is clearly incredibly open to learning about the deaf community – recently getting the sign for ‘I love you’, with her cochlear implant wrapped around it, tattooed on his arm.
Tasha and Andrew made it to the Love Island final (Picture: ITV/REX/Shutterstock)
‘Even in the villa, he was so understanding and we have so many conversations,’ she recalled.
‘I educated him quite a bit on cochlear implants. He’s so invested. He really understands how hard it can be for me sometimes, he’s understands what it’s like for me. He’s like my rock basically.
‘He really wants to be involved, he wants to learn BSL, I’ve been teaching him some basic [signs], but when we have time, we’re definitely going to take some proper courses. I think everything’s just a bit crazy so we haven’t got a certain date we can go every week but I’ve been teaching him the basics and we’ll go from there. But he is really wanting to be part of the community as well.’
Meanwhile, although she and stars like Rose Ayling-Ellis are proving groundbreaking for deaf representation, and other disabled stars like Ellie Simmonds are absolutely smashing it on Strictly, Tasha’s adamant there’s still more to be done.
‘I think representation has still got a long way to go on TV,’ she pointed out.
‘I think we’re going in the right direction, for example Ellie on Strictly at the moment, to me when I saw that, I was like, “Yes, this is what I want to be seeing.” It’s about breaking those boundaries and stigmas and stereotypes around superpowers.
Tasha unveils a sculpture representing the work of deaf producer and signsong rapper, Kevin Walker aka Signkid, outside the Roundhouse in London (Picture: PA)
Liam Hopkins, Kevin Walker and Tasha Ghouri pose with an art installation at The Roundhouse (Picture: Stuart C. Wilson/Getty Images for The National Lottery)
‘I think, for me, I never looked up to anybody on TV with a cochlear implant. And to be able to be that person, to break that boundary, is so important to me. The world is changing and the fact that I’ve got a superpower does not make me any different – why can’t we do a TV show?!’
Tasha recently teamed up with the National Lottery to unveil a sculpture at London’s Roundhouse celebrating deaf British signsong rapper Signkid’s achievements.
She explained of the campaign: ‘It’s so exciting to be part of something so special.
‘This is to represent Kevin Walker, aka Signkid, and he’s done amazing things for the community. What I love about the National Lottery as well is that their players raise £30million a week for good causes and that funding goes towards something like this, making art more accessible for the deaf community.
‘And that’s what this campaign is really all about, especially the arts sector. It’s pushing that message that BSL goes a long way to make the deaf community feel more included and to make art more accessible.’
Tasha Ghouri teamed up with The National Lottery to help celebrate the incredible achievements of deaf British signsong rapper, Signkid, by unveiling a showstopping sculpture at Roundhouse. The campaign shines a light on how the £30m raised a week by National Lottery players goes towards Good Causes across the UK.
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