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16 August 2000

An instant designer wardrobe is now just a click away. Chloe Veltman meets the founders of a new fashion website.

IT'S Wednesday evening and you're on a plane, halfway across the Channel, when you remember that you've forgotten to pack the bright pink Gina mules which are the only pair in the world that perfectly match the beaded Boyd dress you plan to wear on Saturday night. For those among us who would consider jumping from the emergency exit, help is at hand. Open your laptop and click on Net-a-porter.com, a new London-based virtual boutique - think Vogue meets the Cross. And within two days of placing your order, a delicately wrapped pair of pink mules will be delivered to your hotel.

Natalie Massenet, Net-a-porter's 35-year-old managing director, came up with the idea for the site a year-and-a-half ago. Pregnant, freelancing and craving an instant fashion fix, after failing to find a certain Jade Jagger bag on the net, she became determined to set up her own shop online.

'I wanted to sell a few designer sweaters from my kitchen table, under the name of WhatsNewPussycat.com,' she recalls. But lawyers advised her against using a name that might attract lawsuits from such heavyweights as Woody Allen and Tom Jones. So after hiring a fashion editor, 27-year-old Claudia Levy, with whom she had worked at Tatler, the two began trawling through possible names for the website.

'We tried anything from FashionDelicatessen.com to KitAndKaboodle.com, but everything had been taken,' says Levy.

'When we saw that Net-a-porter.com was still free we were so suspicious that we almost didn't take the name,' says Massenet.

Last December, a month after giving birth to her daughter Isabella, Massenet began to look for funding. 'People thought I was mad. I was sitting in investor meetings with a baby on my lap.' She soon realised that selling a few sweaters from her kitchen table was out of the question. Net-a-porter had already outgrown her initial small-scale vision, so Massenet approached former magazine art director Megan Quinn, 35, who, despite being an internet virgin, joined the team as creative director.

Based in a large, open-plan office in Chelsea, Net-a-porter.com - which opened for business two months ago - operates like a glossy online mall. You spot something you fancy, sling it in your shopping basket and head for the checkout. There's a waiting list for out-of-stock items, and a strict returns policy: clothes can only be returned if they still carry the purposefully prominent Net-a-porter.com tag. 'If a customer thinks she can buy an item, wear it to a party and return it the next day, she's got another think coming,' warns Massenet.

Showcasing the work of established designers such as Clements Ribeiro and Diane Von Furstenburg alongside hip newcomers including Paul & Joe and Jade Jagger, the company hopes for a client base of at least 40,000 by year three. This is quite optimistic given the potentially awkward marriage between the exclusive world of retail and the mass-market appeal of the net. 'Lots of designers are wary of the internet because it generally stands for the lowest common denominator of mass distribution,' says Quinn. 'They don't want to see their brand diluted.'

However, Net-a-porter hopes its exclusiveness - haute couture prices, minimal stock (only one or two sizes of any item are available at any time) and packaging sharper than Gucci stilettos - will both capture the cachet of boutique shopping and attract the right fashion designers to the site.

Having clients who are probably more accustomed to being on first-name terms with the assistants at Prada than messing about with a mouse at home, Net-a-Porter has had to devise ways of keeping them happy. 'We want to make them feel as if they're part of a unique club,' says Quinn.

Net-a-porter.com will keep track of what they buy and send individual e-mails, alerting them to something they might like. Net-a-porter.com is determined not to make the same mistakes as the recently demised online fashion retailer Boo.com. The site is supported by £800,000 in initial backing from private investors and, Quinn says, 'Just because Boo didn't work, doesn't mean fashion won't work on the web.'

But they are fully aware that patience has never been the fashion addict's greatest virtue. 'There's no point in having beautiful three-dimensional images if it takes you half an hour to download them,' says Quinn. Levy, Massenet and Quinn are all ardent shoppers and, unsurprisingly, the site reflects their personal tastes. Massenet has already shopped from the Net-a-porter stockroom and

Levy counts Matthew Williamson and Christa Davis among her couturiers of choice. The fashion selection criteria are straightforward. As Massenet puts it, 'I won't buy in anything for my customers that I wouldn't wear myself.'