Think designer clothes, big yellow taxis, One World Trade Center and the Devil Wears Prada.

Jada Stanley, who runs Nusa Indah Surfboards, recounts the day she got the call to meet the team at Vogue in New York which landed her a featured collaboration with the internationally acclaimed magazine.

Jada grew up in Taree and spent every possible moment at the beaches in the Mid Coast area.

Her love for surfing is something that has always been prominent in her life, from opening the Saltwater Surf School on her own at 17-years-old, to now running the internationally renowned surfboard company from her Wallabi Point home.

In 2018 Jada was on a trip to the Bahamas for the launch of luxury hotel, The Cove Atlantis. She designed 20 boards in collaboration with Lulu Dk for the hotel.

She then flew to the Vogue headquarters, saying she was completely unprepared for the potentially life changing meeting.

This all stemmed from what had Jada described as a 'chaotic moment' on the home front.

"Just prior to going on that trip I had a 'what is my life moment,' '' she recalled.

"The kids had just thrown a two litre milk on the floor and Weet-Bix on the ceiling, I started daydreaming and just thought if I could work with anyone in the world who would it be."

She did some internet sleuthing and attempted to email Anna Wintour, who has been the editor-in-chief of Vogue since 1988, and was "ecstatic" to get a reply from the company's director of brand partnerships, Negar Mohammadi saying they would love to work with Nusa Indah Surfboards.

"I flew straight from summer in the Bahamas into a cold snap in New York. The temperature was on 3 or 4 degrees," Jada smiled.

Jada quickly realised she wasn't only underdressed for the weather, but the reality of who she was potentially about the meet hit her.

"I was pacing around my hotel room before the meeting. I had had three coffees and looked in my bag and realised I only packed jeans and a t-shirt," she laughed.

But off she went in a big yellow taxi and headed to the One World Trade Center, a very Sex in the City moment.

When Jada arrived she was asked by security for her identification which she quickly realised she had forgotten.

"I ended up having to talk my way into the building with no ID, jeans and t-shirt so you could imagine I was already pretty flustered when I got up to the headquarters," she said.

"I was then met by the director of brand partnerships who casually asked if I wanted to go down to the cafeteria to grab a coffee and chat about the potential partnership, but I was so nervous I said "oh no thanks I have already had one'."

"I didn't mean for it to come out like that obviously, but she took me to the board meeting room instead which had massive tables and beautiful chairs and the most stunning outlook of the city."

Jada said it was ironic chatting about the surfboards and her lifestyle on the Mid North Coast while they overlooked a freezing New York City.

On her way out the director asked if Jada wanted to get a photo.

Jada tossed her handbag across to the side for the photo with Negar Mohammadi, but what she didn't realise was she threw it straight into the path of Vogue editor-in-chief, Anna Wintour.

"I remember her (the director) pointing in the direction I had just thrown my handbag and signaling 'It's her'," Jada said.

"But it was too late - I almost took out Anna Wintour!"

Jada said she always laughs thinking back to that moment, but what she will always hold was her ability to be true to herself.

"Something that has stuck with me from that day was the director saying 'we are not into fashion, we are into style and we like you'," she said.

So even though she rocked up to one of the most iconic fashion headquarters in jeans and a t-shirt, Jada says she was true to herself and it was ultimately well received.

"I guess the main message is you don't have to be something you are not to fit into an image. It is easy to sell something if you maintain your integrity and be your authentic self.

"My boards and my business is ultimately a culmination of my life story and experiences."

Following the meeting, Jada was given free-rein to the covers from all of Vogue's magazine archives.

And together, American Vogue and Nusa Indah Surfboards created three cover-inspired, performance surfboards to bring the iconic Australian surf scene to the streets of New York and beyond.

The boards featured original artworks by Salvador Dali, Eduardo Garcia Benito and Georges LePape.

It was then in August 2019, Jada attended the launch party of the collaboration in New York after featuring in three online articles in Vogue.

"It was crazy how the collaboration happened. It looks glamorous from afar but it is all of those behind the scene stories that most people never get to see or hear."

Jada, 38, still surfs almost every day and loves to spend the afternoons with her three children, Ruby (12), Finn (11) and Hunter (9) at Wallabi Point with other families of the tight community.

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