What sets www.matchesfashion.com apart is its scale. The site offers 1,000 items from 100 designers. With weekly updates, those numbers are set to grow. Among the brands on offer are Chloé, Marc Jacobs, Stella McCartney, Miu Miu and McQ by Alexander McQueen. It will be the first opportunity online to buy clothing, not just accessories, from prestigious labels such as Lanvin, Balenciaga and Prada.
The site will particularly appeal to the kind of women who buy their winter coat in July and are on first-name terms with the new Marc Jacobs bag before it’s even hit the stores. There are more than 200 catwalk exits, on the site and customers can just click on the picture and buy or reserve the item. Tom Chapman founded the original Matches boutique in 1993 with his wife, Ruth; now there are 10. “We are a bricks-and-mortar retailer,” he explains, “so our website is an extension of the high level of customer service that we are known for.”
You can manage your own wish list and be first in the queue to order pieces previewed in the 10,000-item online look book. You can also e-mail or call Matches stylists for advice. And an “as seen in the press” option allows browsers to search for items featured in magazines. There will be high-calibre menswear, too, another web first, including Lanvin’s chic new men’s label and Dolce & Gabbana.
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Matches: 0800 121 8949, www.matchesfashion.com