It was a fruitless search for Chloé jeans that sparked a retail revolution on the Internet. Natalie Massenet, who was a fashion editor at Tatler in London in 1999, was looking to buy a pair of jeans by the French luxury label to no avail. So she decided to do something about it. In June 2000, she radically changed the luxury online shopping landscape when she founded Net-A-Porter — the retail Web site that sells high-end brands — just as the Internet bubble was about to lose air. But her unique business venture persevered from a Chelsea flat where she worked with two other employees, monitoring purchases on a computer as they wrapped up designer garments in the company’s now signature tissue paper, matte black boxes, and ribbon.
A decade later, Massenet sold her portion of the company to the Swiss luxury goods group Richemont — which owns such brands as Chloé, Cartier, and Montblanc – for an astonishing sum of an estimated £50 million ($77 million). Each month approximately 3 million visitors land on Net-a-Porter to browse its vast inventory of 350 designer collections that includes everything from Christian Louboutin heels to Oscar de la Renta gowns to Yves Saint Laurent handbags. Massenet also added two new luxury e-tail Web sites to her empire: Mr Porter, which is targeted at men, and the Outnet, where customers can find heavy discounts on designer items.
Massenet also has a staunch interest in art. Net-a-Porter sponsored Frieze New York, launched a special fashion and art issue for the company’s online magazine, and held a lavish dinner with luminaries from both worlds. For this week’s Tastemaker, Massenet talks to ARTINFO about her anti-aging secret, her latest art purchase, and what kind of heels she prefers to wear to the office.
Click on the slide show to see Natalie Massenet’s Tastemaker picks.
See more ARTINFO fashion and style coverage on our blog Silhouettes.