Net-a-Porter's Market Director Shares the Top Denim Trends for Fall

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For Net-a-Porter's market director, Libby Page, no two days on the job are the same. She got her start at Net-a-Porter eight years ago when she was hired as a fashion assistant. "My role is really about being the conduit between buying, marketing, editorial, and providing holistic insights on the trends that we're investing in, the product that we really love," she says. "I joined as a fashion assistant in the editorial team, which I always think is the best way to learn the ropes in any fashion business that you're in."

Now, as market director, Page is largely responsible for Net-a-Porter's highly curated collections and is constantly thinking about and researching what the customer wants. "We can see what edits she's shopping the most. We can see where they're spending the most time on site, what campaigns they're clicking on. So we use all of that to inform the choices that we make so that we're providing the product that we know they're going to love," she says.

For the latest episode of Who What Wear With Hillary Kerr, Page shares what her job is like today, the trends she's seeing in denim, and more. For excerpts from their conversation, scroll below. 

Explain what exactly a market director does at a place like Net-a-Porter. How did you find yourself working for one of my favorite companies of all time?

I've been there for eight years. I've gotten to know Net-a-Porter very, very well. I joined as a fashion assistant in the editorial team, which I always think is the best way to learn the ropes in any fashion business that you're in. Then I found myself working within our buying team around five years ago as a junior market editor and now market director, which is really exciting.

I would say that my job has many different facets to it, but my role is really about being the conduit between buying, marketing, editorial, and providing holistic insights on the trends that we're investing in, the product that we really love to make sure that all of our marketing communication that we do really aligns with our buying strategy. I think our customer is so engaged in content and the way that they shop and the way that they inform their shopping choices, [so] we really want to make sure that they align with everything that we feel really strongly about from a product perspective.

It's really all about those holistic insights and making sure that everything is singing from the same hymn sheet. It's a really, really dynamic job.

I imagine that this job requires you to be quite flexible because you're not just looking at things from your own point of view, necessarily. There might be a trend that you personally wouldn't invest in, but you realize that there will be a great market for something. How do you think that challenge through, and how do you balance it and really get the right mix?

When you said "the right mix" there, that is the most important thing. It can be easy to think about your own personal taste levels, but ultimately, we have to be led by the data. We can see what social posts our customer loves. We can see what edits she's shopping the most. We can see where they're spending the most time on site, what campaigns they're clicking on. We use all of that to inform the choices that we make so that we're providing the product that we know they're going to love.

Myself, the buyers, people that we speak to, we are also the Net-a-Porter customers. We know ourselves very well. I think often there is a general consensus among the team that we're all really gravitating toward something, or we don't feel like that's gonna be right for our customer. We're generally on the money because we're all our customers.

Personal taste does come into it a little bit. We're all trying to get our hands on the Alaïa mesh flats, myself included—and our customers. I have gotten to know the customer like an old friend as well. There's knowledge that you learn that the data can't provide. It's just that intuition and instinct.

Talk to me a little bit about how denim trends are showing up on the runway for fall and the more approachable versions. What are you looking forward to hitting Net-a-Porter right now for fall? What do you think is going to be a really big seller?

One thing I'm really excited about is that denim hasn't just taken on this off-duty attitude. I loved some of the tailored and rigid denim that we saw coming through. The Canadian tuxedo, for me, is still a great way to style and wear denim. I think we saw that coming through on the runway.

I mentioned Alaïa earlier, but this figure-hugging denim jacket that brings you in at the waist [and] an amazing pair of high-waisted, rigid denim jeans.

I like the idea of denim as tailoring. I think that feels really fresh. Denim maxi skirts, I think they used to be this kind of grunge, '90s attitude, but actually for fall, they felt quite refined and elegant. You'd have a low-rise with a tank top and a heel, and it felt very '90s. I think those are some of the big denim trends we saw coming through.

Again, I was talking about this wide-leg, oversize denim shape that everyone's been wearing. It really is the bigger the better. I think that's going to be great.

I love white denim at the moment. Even for fall, it feels really fresh and clean. I think if you can do a denim jacket with a denim straight-leg jean, again, it's this idea of wearing a suit, which I think feels really cool when you do it in a fabric like denim. In terms of how that ties in with all the other trends that we're seeing, I was so excited to see the return of '90s minimalism for fall. I'm a '90s baby. I love '90s dressing and was happy to dig back into the archive.

The new color of the season is red. When you see red paired with denim, I just think it adds such a vibrant pop and polish to that fabric. What I love is that denim is something that's really working with the wider trends that we're seeing in the market.

If I said, "Libby, I need you to recommend three denim pieces to buy right now that will look great now—even though it's hot out in summer—and that I will still feel cool in come January and beyond." What would you suggest, and are there any specific brands/specific styles?

This really is a challenge. The first I would have to say is a straight-leg jean. I love Agolde's '90s Pinch. Amazing fit, universally flattering.

I love a denim shirt at the moment that can also be worn as a jacket. [It's] that idea of versatility, which I think is great when you're looking for something to wear right now and then transition into fall. I love the Slvrlake Cassidy shirt, which is thick enough that you can wear it as a jacket but then light enough that it could be a denim shirt if you didn't want to wear anything underneath.

Last, probably the maxi skirt. Goldsign has got some amazing maxi skirts at the moment. The low-rise I think is really nice. One with an oversize jumper in fall, a tank top in summer. I think those feel really nice and transseasonal. I would say, wash-wise, blue or white for me. Actually, you can wear them in summer or fall.

This interview has been edited and condensed for clarity. Next, check out our interview with celebrity interior designer Jake Arnold.