Federico Marchetti, creator of Yoox Net-a-Porter, has written a memoir about his early days in the Dotcom boom and the birth of fashion e-tailing. What a wild ride it's been.

The fashion business has produced its share of visionaries, but few saw the digital future as early—or as clearly—as Federico Marchetti. Long before “e-commerce” became industry shorthand, Marchetti was building Yoox into a global platform that would eventually merge with Net-a-Porter, reshaping how luxury is sold—and consumed.

In his new book, The Geek of Chic: An American Dream Italian Style, published by Post Hill Press, Marchetti charts that journey: from early skepticism and near-misses to IPO euphoria and the complexities of scaling a digital luxury empire. But what makes the story particularly compelling now is what came after. Since stepping away from the company, Marchetti has turned his focus to sustainability, working closely with King Charles III on initiatives like the Fashion Task Force, with projects spanning from regenerative agriculture to craft revival.

I first saw this work up close in 2022, when I was contributing editor for British Vogue, and a team from the magazine, including editor-in-chief Edward Enninful and me, traveled to Ayrshire, Scotland to meet with Marchetti and then-Prince Charles at Dumfries House, the seat for what is now known as the King’s Foundation, His Majesty’s sustainability center, which is open to the public.

As head of the foundation’s Sustainable Markets Initiative Task Force on Fashion, Marchetti had initiated a program called Modern Artisan, where fashion students from around Europe came together for several months on the Dumfries House estate to produce a capsule collection of sustainable men’s and womenswear to sell on Yoox Net-a-Porter, with proceeds going to the foundation. Modern Artisan, which went on for several years, linked traditional skills with contemporary design, and offered a glimpse of what a more responsible fashion system might look like.

Since then, as head of the Fashion Task Force, Marchetti has launched many more projects to make fashion more sustainable and responsible, including the Digital ID, a traceability technology that tracks a fashion item from production to resale; the Apulia Regenerative Cotton Project, a collaboration with Giorgio Armani and the Circular Bioeconomy Alliance; and the Himalaya Regenerative Fashion Living Lab, a monumental reforestation and agroforestry project in the Eastern and Western Himalayas to restore and rebuild degraded land and recover traditional craft and textile skills throughout the region, funded by Brunello Cucinelli.

After devouring Marchetti's book, which is a fun, insightful read, full of business wisdom and a lot of self-deprecation, I asked him tell me more about his journey: those crazy early Dotcom days, his blind faith in the internet, the hard-earned lessons, and what it takes to know when to walk away. Excerpts:

You were betting on the internet before most of fashion even had a website. What did you see then that others didn’t—or didn’t want to see?

In 2000, fashion didn’t reject the internet because it didn’t understand it; it rejected it because it was afraid of losing control.

I saw something different. I saw that technology could actually enhance storytelling, not diminish it, that it could make fashion more emotional, not less.

The real opportunity wasn’t just e-commerce; it was reimagining how luxury could exist in a digital world.

Why fashion? You could have applied that early digital instinct to any number of industries—what drew you specifically to this one?

Because fashion is irrational and emotional, and that’s exactly why it matters. It’s the hardest category, and therefore the most interesting.

As an Italian returning to Italy after my MBA at Columbia Business School, I also felt it made sense to leverage the Made in Italy ecosystem as a unique competitive advantage.

The name Yoox has become part of the industry lexicon, but it was mysterious at the start. Where did it come from, and what did you want it to convey?

The name Yoox comes from two ideas: chromosomes and the infinite.

“Y” and “X” represent male and female—men’s and women’s fashion. The two “O”s form a circle, a symbol of infinity and circularity.

Long before circular fashion became a concept, that idea was already embedded in the name. Yoox began by selling off-season products and vintage, under the motto: “Good fashion never dies.”

Those early years weren’t exactly smooth. What were the biggest pitfalls, and what, in retrospect, were the most useful mistakes you made?

Brands didn’t trust the internet, and customers didn’t yet trust buying fashion online.

But we fully leveraged our first-mover advantage, as we were earlier than everybody else. As The New York Times once described me, I was “the man who put fashion on the net.”

Taking Yoox public was both a technical and emotional milestone. What did that process teach you about scale, scrutiny, and yourself?

Going public teaches you discipline, but also humility and full trasparency. Growth becomes responsibility.

We were the first Italian unicorn. As you can see, I like being first at doing something: perhaps that’s what innovation really is.

The merger with Net-a-Porter was hailed as transformative—but also, from the outside, enormously complex. What was hardest about making that union work?

We were bringing together two companies with different identities and ways of thinking, but also incredibly complementary. The real challenge was cultural, between Italian and British approaches.

We weren’t just combining platforms; we were combining cultures.

You were early—uncannily early—on e-commerce. Do you see AI as a comparable inflection point? And where do you think the real disruption lies?

Yes, both are tools, and human progress has always been driven by the invention of new tools.

Both e-commerce and AI require significant energy, data centers, and capital expenditure. But there is a key difference: AI is far more powerful, and its economic viability is still being tested. Today, it is priced at only a fraction of what it actually costs to run.

You stepped away at a moment when many founders might have held on. How did you know it was time to bow out—and was it as clear to you then as it seems now?

I’ve always believed in timing. There’s a moment when you’re the right person to build something and another when the company needs a different kind of leadership.

Recognizing that moment is part of the job, and it can change everything. When Richemont (Cartier’s parent company) launched a tender offer for my group, I felt it was the right time to step away - after 20 years at the helm of what I had built.

Your work with King Charles’s Fashion Task Force feels like a second act with real urgency. What were the first principles you and he agreed on when you began?

Yes, I created the Modern Artisan project, which I was pleased to see Yoox Net-a-Porter continue for several years after my departure. Today, Cartier is developing a major initiative with The King’s Foundation.

I’m a Trustee of the Board, the only Italian among mostly British and Scottish members, and, as The King likes to say, I’m his “Italian Secret Weapon.”

I remember visiting you at Dumfries House in January 2022 and seeing Modern Artisan up close—this idea of marrying heritage craft with a modern supply chain. What has that project taught you, and how has it evolved since?

Modern Artisan was about reconnecting two worlds: craftsmanship and innovation.

The future isn’t about choosing between tradition and innovation, it’s about making them work together. Like human and technology.

After building the infrastructure of digital luxury and now helping rethink its future, where do you see the most meaningful change still to come?

Fashion began with craftsmanship, but over time it became too corporate, dominated by large groups, ruthless management, and, in some cases, unjustified pricing for industrial products, often at the expense of creativity.

This is exactly the argument of my book, Deluxe: How Luxury Lost Its Luster. So what’s next? Where do we go from here?

The next phase is about rediscovering authenticity: knowing where things truly come from, how they are made - often by hand - and what impact they have. Technology will enable this shift, but culture and artisans will drive it.