Ruth Chapman: ‘In fashion, when women talk, men listen. That’s an amazing position for me to be in’

The Matches founder has turned one small shop into a clothing empire. Ruth Chapman tells Karen Dacre about championing British fashion
5 September 2013

With sleek ashen hair, a passion for Balenciaga and a gentle disposition that would put even the most softly spoken John Lewis sales assistant to shame, Ruth Chapman isn’t your average shopkeeper. But a shopkeeper, all be it an impeccably turned out one, is what she is.

As well as running the first Matches clothing store in Wimbledon, which she founded with her husband Tom back in 1987, the 52-year-old now presides over an empire of 14 London stores plus a major e-commerce site.

Of course things have changed since the early days. In the Eighties, a decade in which she says “anything was possible”, Chapman manned the till, dressed the windows and negotiated deals with some of the world’s biggest brands. “We were the first UK retailer aside from Prada to stock Prada,” she recalls. “Our customers wanted more and more luxury.”

Today, with three teenagers at home and 389 members of staff to help ring through till sales and dress mannequins, Chapman spends increasingly less time on the shopfloor. Managing stock levels, solving international delivery issues and mentoring the next upcoming design talents are the keys tasks on her to-do list.

The company’s most fruitful shop is an online flagship, which stocks some 400 fashion labels for both men and women and accounts for 70 per cent of the business. Last year the company, recently renamed MATCHESFASHION.COM, sold a £20 million stake to venture capital firms Scottish Equity Partners and Highland Partners to further develop its presence as an online fashion mecca to match rival NET-A-PORTER.COM.

Chapman now sits on the newly appointed board. “I think in fashion when women talk, men listen. That’s an amazing position to be in,” she says.

Among the first objectives for the new-look Matches team was to bring a host of experienced stylists and writers in to create magazine-inspired content for the website. With the help of this dream team MATCHESFASHION.COM is on the cusp of relaunching its biannual magazine.

“When you’re selling fashion the first people you sell to are in the industry, and we have always been careful to acknowledge that. Our customers are fashion literate, they know what they’re talking about, so we have to be right. For that reason, we are developing the site as a place that industry people can come as well as those who are nuts about fashion.”

The Matches empire certainly has the British fashion industry onside. Since its very early days Ruth and Tom Chapman have been dedicated to scouring and supporting newcomers to the industry while remaining loyal to the big brands — which remain a regular fixture in store.

Recent years have seen limited-edition collaborations with Jonathan Saunders, Richard Nicoll, Giles and Erdem fly off the racks, while a collection with London Fashion Week starlet Claire Barrow has just launched in store offering customers the chance to own a screenprinted version of her signature leather jackets.

A fully-fledged member of the British Fashion Council’s New Gen selection panel, Chapman is an advocate of British design — a dedication reflected both in the brands she buys to sell in Matches stores and in her own wardrobe. When we meet she is wearing a bouclé top by London Fashion Week designer Erdem and trousers by Stella McCartney. “I buy a lot of British,” she says.

For Chapman, the joy of working with British designers is their willingness to collaborate. “They listen,” she says, “they are keen to work with us to create the right thing.” It’s little wonder they’re so enthusiastic: not only does Chapman have more than 30 years of experience and a phenomenally successful fashion brand under her guard, but she retains her status as one of the British fashion’s most revered style plates. Her flawless taste, coupled with her insistence that her team think closely about their customers is undoubtedly the Matches trump card. Chapman has a sixth sense for predicting what her customers want — often before they know themselves.

“We buy for all sorts of women,” she says, “the mother, the artistic individual, the careerist. Our buyers should know which type of women something is for and where she is going in it. If you can’t answer those questions then you shouldn’t be buying it. Women are not sheep. Whether they’re 25 or 65, they want to feel current and up-to-date. It’s our job to make sure they are dressed for the occasion.”

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