Ruth Chapman
Ruth Elizabeth Chapman (born December 1961) is co-founder and former co-CEO of luxury fashion retailer MATCHESFASHION.COM. Early life Born on the Wirral, Chapman attended West Kirby Grammar School for Girls. While growing up, Chapman said she was always interested in fashion and the "power of clothes". She was influenced by her mother, stepmother, and grandmother and, as a teenager, spent the weekends rifling through fashion thrift stores. After leaving school, Chapman went on to work at fashion brand Jaeger, department store Harrods, and a video production company. At the age of 21, Chapman met Tom Chapman, who convinced her to leave her job to help him run a fashion boutique. Career Ruth and Tom Chapman co-founded MATCHESFASHION.COM as a single brick-and-mortar fashion store in Wimbledon, London in 1987. The couple expanded the luxury fashion chain to 14 stores in London, including launching franchise stores for MaxMara and Diane von Furstenberg. Chapman was known in the industry for working with new and up-and-coming talent, and has said that "discovering" new designers was key to the business' early success. In 2007, the couple launched the MATCHESFASHION.COM website, which Chapman has called a "seismic moment" for the business. From the launch of the