Natalie Massenet on Starting Net-A-Porter

I got my first job at Women’s Wear Daily in Los Angeles and immediately thought, “Wow, I can be editor-in-chief of a glossy magazine,” like Anna Wintour or Isabella Blow. But when I went to work at a magazine in London [Tatler], I found the day-to-day atmosphere in the industry was getting to me. The number of girls crying in the bathroom just gets you down. When I left, I felt like I’d jumped off the edge of the earth.

In 1999, I came up with this idea that you could buy clothes online. When I realized that kind of site didn’t exist, I got very excited. Just as I was about to start Net-A-Porter, I was offered a chance to become fashion director of this new magazine called Nova. Here was a chance to have my dream job. I remember turning to [the editor-in-chief] at a show and telling her, “I think I’ll try this Internet thing.” We both thought I was crazy.