Always wanting to try something new, Natalie created a live Instagram feed (NatAPorter_MyStorySoFar) which she used as a sort of slide show whilst giving the talk. She encouraged everyone to get their phones out and look at the feed and tweet and comment etc. as she really feels that social media is the way forward (very different to Paul Smith's perception!). This was an innovative way to engage the audience and straight away it was clear that she is one step ahead of everyone, a creator. The talk started with her parents and her as a child ('everything has to start somewhere..and it's usually small') and followed her journey through school and university, her travels from Madrid to Paris to LA to Toyko, and different careers which she toyed with before stepping firmly into the fashion pool.
In her talk, Natalie strongly emphasised the importance of Creative Visualisation, and a photograph of her standing infront of her Net-A-Porter empire, just how she had visualised it, was truly touching. In the talk, Natalie spoke about the difficulties of being a mother and a business woman, trying to set up an online magazine when people's broadband wouldn't let them load too many pictures, the importance of teamwork, and most importantly the importance of hard work.
For me, as an aspiring designer, to hear someone who's business has been recently sold for £230million talk about how they got turned down for a job at Vogue and used to sleep every lunch time at their desk when working as a receptionist, it gave me faith that there is no one route to success and it often looks different to different people, but hard work will get you there one way or another. Natalie Massenet spoke about so many things in such a passionate and driven way that I can't even describe a tiny bit of what it was like to listen to her speak! I will be posting some quotes into the quotes section of my blog from today that I find especially inspiring.
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