KEY POINTS:
The impeccably groomed founder of Net-a-porter.com, Natalie Massenet, has a knack for making hyperbole sound like a reasonable business proposition.
"A global, excitement-driving phenomenon," is how she describes fashion. What can she mean? Well, specifically, the hunger for a particular shortlist of "must-have" designer goods that
she observed emerging in the late 90s.
"Chloe became the hottest thing, overnight, and it only had five boutiques," recalls Massenet, from Net-a-porter's sprawling top-floor office in Bayswater, west London.
"But you had to have the Chloe jeans. So, women everywhere in the world were calling the Paris store and throwing credit-card details at them in broken French."
It was this phenomenon that led her to devise an audacious plan to sell designer clothes to women everywhere over the internet.
Launched in 2000, the year that other web ventures, including the designer retailer boo.com, went bust, Net-a-porter is flourishing. In its first year, "a couple of thousand" shoppers bought on the site. Seven years on, it's 100,000 and rising. Turnover last year was £21.3 million ($54.7 million).
While most far-flung users of Net-a-porter are undoubtedly drawn by the site's megabrands, including Marc Jacobs, Stella McCartney and Fendi, new labels "have always been part of our DNA", says Massenet.
This year, the site is preparing to ramp up that commitment to emerging talent by signing up as the new partner of Fashion Fringe, the annual fashion-design contest that seeks to discover Marcs- and Stellas-in-the-making.
The winner of the competition, to be announced following a finale during September's London Fashion Week, will have his or her collection sold on the site.
The presence of new labels is not a token gesture, says Massenet - young designers "who are driving innovation", attract customers.
It is new names (such as Todd Lynn, Derek Lam and Jonathan Saunders), and seasonal products (Chloe's Bay bag) with "buzz" that are the real draw for the site's consumers. New names and seasonal products are relatively hard to find, even in the fashion capitals of London and Paris, which is the ideal scenario for the access-all-markets Net-a-porter to move in.
"The most important thing about Net-a-porter is that it gives me stockists everywhere in the world," says Todd Lynn, whose debut collection was picked up by Massenet and her buying team. "Fashion press tends to be driven by retail," he says, meaning that, if his white-leather tuxedo jackets aren't available in a store in China, no local press will cover him.
"As a young designer, you still need to be able to meet your orders," he says, whether the buyer is online or from a department store.
Net-a-porter buys clothes in large quantities so he can strike deals with factories; the early stages of a young designer's career are notoriously difficult as most manufacturers are reluctant to produce small quantities of clothing.
"Sometimes, if we take on a young designer, we're able to make a really big difference - to their career, to their positioning in the market, to their profile," says Massenet.
Roland Mouret, one of the designers the site has nurtured since early in his career, says a store needs to develop "a kind of intimacy with a customer, who then knows about your career and can follow you".
" The stock is stored in New York and London, in "two Aladdin's caves - we don't divulge the address in case it causes a riot!" says Massenet.
- INDEPENDENT