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As Mercedes-Benz Fashion Week Australia 2016 comes into focus, we meet MATCHESFASHION.COM buying director Natalie Kingham.
What is your previous experience in the industry?
My career in fashion started at the Joseph shop at Brompton Cross, a major fashion hub at that time. I was working in the store and an incredible opportunity came up when Joseph asked me to find interesting British labels for him and to help with the buy for the store which was so exciting. Patrick Cox was a favourite of mine, as well as Alexander McQueen – I attended some of his first shows and bought the collection promising Joseph it would be a success! I have also been a stylist, had my own line of clothes and wholesaled collections so have had a diverse cross-section of jobs within the fashion industry. However buying and working closely with designers is my passion.
What is your day-to-day role?
As womenswear buying director, I oversee the buy across all our categories – international, contemporary, vacationwear, activewear, bags, shoes and accessories.
The focus as a team is to always ensure that we have the best edit of luxury brands in the world that have fashion authority and are commercially successful. It is also important for the team to always look at where trends are developing and find what we believe our customers will want next.
Another key part of our job is to continuously review our edit of brands, re-evaluating and working out what is missing. In my opinion the most important thing for a buyer to remember is to buy with a strong point of view and to keep things fresh and exciting. As well as attending shows and visiting showrooms during fashion weeks, we also spend a lot of time meeting designers outside of these weeks where we discuss how we can partner even more successfully through exclusive collaborations – we are shortly launching exclusive capsule collections with Altuzarra and Emilia Wickstead and can’t wait to see how our customers react.
When we are in the office, I collaborate and work closely with the editorial, marketing and press teams on developments in the marketplace and how we are best going to communicate our new brands and exclusives to our customers.
What is the most rewarding aspect?
For me it is being able to see some of the best collections in the world first hand. I find this a real privilege and always will. Teams of people, or sometimes just one, will pour their vision and hard work into these collections and it is a labour of love.
Sourcing interesting new or lesser known designers is another part of my role that I get most excited about – it is always thrilling when you get an inkling that something is going to be huge and you often get quite a clear indication early on – not only due to the buying team’s instinct in the showroom, but also through the press and social media reaction. There are so many brands that I am proud to have worked with and introduced to matchesfashion.com – recent brands such as Vetements, Dodo Bar Or, Vita Kin, Elina Linardaki, Isa Arfen and Palmer Harding.
As tiring as it sometimes can be the travel is a part of my job that I love. I get to visit some wonderful cities and countries which is an incredible way to get inspiration, discover news brands and get to understand our clients globally.
What is the most challenging aspect?
Probably the timescale. When you start to view collections and get orders together is a very intense short time. You have to be very decisive and sure of your decisions. You have to view a collection very quickly and need to be very efficient at getting all of the information you need.
What is most attractive about Australian designers?
Since we first attended Fashion Week in April 2013, we have been impressed by the calibre of design talent that has emerged out of Australia – from Zimmermann to Ellery to Dion Lee to Camilla and Marc to name a few – they all offer a unique point of view which is so important. For us it is less about where a brand is from, and more about how they fit within our edit and whether they offer something different to our customer. We have found the way in which many of the Australian designers have so quickly become international names and brands so exciting – brands such as Zimmermann are frequently in our best sellers list and an exclusive collaboration we launched with Ellery last season sold out almost as soon as it launched on site.
What do you see as the biggest change to the industry?
Retail has changed a lot and the customer lifestyle has also changed – women are on the move a lot more, multitasking all day between work, motherhood, travel and everything in between. When buying it's important to always think about what your customer wants to wear and how it will enhance her life. Also the way in which fashion shows and events are becoming increasingly customer facing is an interesting trend that is all about listening to the customer and giving them the choice of how they want to engage with brands. This is always something that has been key to what we do and we believe is the future of modern luxury commerce.
What do you see as the biggest change coming?
We are all increasingly shopping in a digital way – currently mobile is 50% of our traffic. As our lives become evermore busy, it will be essential to be able to shop in a way that works for the individual. Whichever way you choose to shop, whether in a physical or virtual space; on your phone whilst on the go; at your desk at work; in your lunch break or at home, the processes will continue to get easier. In addition, the merging of commerce with editorial and virtual with physical will become increasingly important. At matchesfashion.com we want all of our clients to enjoy the same immersive experience, whether in one of our five stores in London, or on our international website and we will continue to enhance how we merge the two.