AWCCI Magazines Afghan Women in Business (Issue 3) | Page 30

Natalie Massenet
Founder of Net-A-Porter
Massenet was born in 1966 to a Californian
journalist and a British Chanel model. She
went on to study English Literature at the
University of California. Upon graduation,
Massenet spent a year in Tokyo working as
both a model and a stylist. Fashion permeated
through her early career, working for *Wom-
en’s Wear Daily * and later becoming Isabella
Blow’s assistant at Tatler.
At the age of 33, Massenet came up with the
idea for a luxury fashion e-tail site, soon to
become the Net-a-Porter empire. “I couldn’t
believe you could be sitting in your apartment
in London and be clicking on a Victorian jacket
in Wisconsin, and that someone in Wisconsin
could send it to you!” She told Vogue. With
help from her then-husband Arnaud Massen-
et, an investment banker whom she’d met at
Notting Hill Carnival in 1997, she raised £1.2
million in start-up investments and spear-
headed the early steps of Net-A-Porter with
a team of just fifteen. Pregnant at the time
with her first child, Isabella, Massenet used
her bedroom as stock storage and her bath
to keep Net-A-Porter’s famously lux-
urious packaging.
Net-a-porter launched offi-
cially in 2000, dispelling any
doubts about the lack of
bricks and mortar shop,
with Roland Mouret sell-
ing his first collection on
the site in 2001 and lead-
ing to profitable success
in 2004. The same year,
Massenet - and Net-A-
Porter - won the Best
Shop award at the 2004
British Fashion Awards
and the UK Fashion Ex-
port Award for Best
26 AFGHAN WOMEN IN BUSINESS
E-tailer. When Halston was being re-launched
in 2008, the brand agreed to sell two dresses
on Net-A-Porter the day after the brand’s de-
but runway show.
After Massenet was named as one of Time
Magazine’s 100 most influential people in
April 2014, J Crew founder Jenna Lyons told
Women’s Wear Daily: “The word visionary is
lofty, overused. Somewhat abused. There are
few people
who can really see something
that
doesn’t exist. Create
it.
Explain it. And
get others to
follow.
Natalie
Massenet
is, in fact,
that vi-
sionary.”