LIANE WIGGINS: Luxury Fashion Buying & Brand Consultant
There are certain people in fashion who possess an almost mystical ability to predict what we'll all want to wear before we even know it ourselves. Liane is undoubtedly one of those rare talents. As former Head of Buying at Matches, she quietly shaped how an entire generation of luxury customers wanted to dress, all while maintaining an elegant but understated personal style that makes her approach feel effortless.
I had the pleasure of seeing Liane at work during my time as Personal Shopping Manager at Matches and what struck me then - and continues to inspire me now - is how she combines sharp commercial instincts with genuine warmth, commanding respect through quietly confident conviction rather than empty volume (in every sense of the word).
From Vogue Archives to Boutique Buying
Liane's journey into luxury buying began after studying fashion design, when she found herself working on fashion features at Vogue. Liane spent her days deep in the archives researching historical fashion stories, during a time when finding reference points required painstaking and thorough detective work.
"I spent so much time in that archive, and it was just an incredible way to learn just incredible. This was all pre-Instagram, pre-social media, anything. So you had to really go and reference stuff. You couldn't just look it up."
Through her connections at Vogue, Liane discovered an opportunity at Matches -then a much smaller boutique business with just locations just in Wimbledon, Richmond and Notting Hill. The timing was serendipitous. Online luxury retail was in its infancy and many industry veterans were convinced that high-end fashion could never work in digital formats.
"Nobody in the industry believed in online. Everyone was saying, 'You cannot sell luxury goods at this price point online.' So Natalie (Massenet) was working away on NAP, and Tom and Ruth (Chapman, Matches' founders) decided, 'We're going to do this as well.'" “We need to move luxury into online, luxury online consuming, along with bricks & mortar will be the way forward”
Those early days at Matches provided Liane with an intensive education in boutique buying that would prove invaluable throughout her career. Working above a small shop in Wimbledon, the team was constantly absorbing client feedback, understanding what resonated, and building relationships with emerging designers.
Understanding the Real Customer
Having a strong eye for product is of course essential for any buyer, but what sets exceptional buyers like Liane apart from their contemporaries is their deep understanding of customer behaviour and lifestyle evolution. Liane's approach was always rooted in genuine customer obsession, spending time on the shop floor and absorbing real feedback rather than relying on assumptions or today's social media influence.
She's particularly emphatic about the difference between real customers and the influencer-driven narratives that dominate social media.
"You're not really thinking about your own personal taste as a buyer, 'Oh, I like this and I like that.' During market you're wearing so many different customer hats the whole day through, going from Bottega to Versace to Chloé to Saint Laurent. You need to go into the showroom confidentially and totally understand your customer very quickly, putting the hat on of that customer, and very rarely thinking about yourself."
Liane's philosophy about customer understanding goes much deeper than just demographics or purchasing power. She's particularly passionate about rejecting industry assumptions about how women "should" dress at different life stages.
"I believe that no woman ever wants to look older than she is. She doesn't want to feel like she's having to dress in a super young way either, but she wants to feel the very best version of herself at whichever life stage she is in. Not all buyers or retailers necessarily understand that, and they still think a certain woman in her forties or beyond wants to dress perhaps in a more old fashioned way."
New product categories including fine jewellery and homeware were introduced at Matches based on the first-hand customer observations Liane and her team had made about their desires and lifestyle, to huge commercial success.
The Art of Merchant Conviction
A crucial element of Liane's approach and commercial success is her emphasis on merchant conviction and ability to trust her instincts when surrounded by competitors, opinions, and market noise. She describes buying appointments as requiring intense focus and discipline.
"You have to be quite comfortable that in that short time period in the brand showroom you've put together the best edit from the brand for your customer, because then you're moving on to the appointment, it is so fast paced. Within reason and depending on the buy and brand I don’t think buyers should overthink and over work their selections as that is sometimes when the selection can become diluted if many opinions have come in and perhaps the buy has been reviewed many many times that can also dilute the buy and as a buyer you need strong vision along with commercial acumen."
This conviction was tested regularly in high-pressure showroom environments where maintaining focus meant everything.
" There's so many other buyers, retailers on market, all your competitors, different stylists, many different people with many different opinions. And you have to be able to work collaboratively but also be able to stand up and say, 'No, I believe in this.' Otherwise, you just end up looking left and right constantly and not focusing on what is best for your customer."
Liane’s stories of buying appointments with legendary designers like Azzedine Alaïa perfectly illustrate just how demanding the role could be. These weren't glamorous shopping trips but intense technical exercises requiring deep product knowledge.
"You’d get to Paris, knock on the showroom space door, and sometimes they weren't ready. Sometimes you wouldn't be let in for a few hours but buying brands like Azzedine Alaia at the time whilst he was alive was such an amazing experience . You really needed to understand the brand and the customer and if you couldn’t differentiate one fabrication from another in the showroom, with many dress fabrics looking the same on the rail, you sort of might as well have left the showroom."
The Alaïa appointments were an education that surface-level knowledge wasn't enough. Knowing fabrics and detail inside out, what was good from what wasn't, what was overpriced and what was underpriced was essential.
This pressure-cooker environment also shaped her philosophy to 'get the buy done'. To be strong minded and really stick to what she and her team know is right for their customer and have that confidence and conviction. Once that is in place, then they can go and have a look at what everyone else is doing.
Balancing Ambition with Wellbeing
One of the most honest aspects of our conversation was Liane's reflection on work-life balance throughout her career. She's refreshingly candid about the intensity of her approach, particularly during the years when she was building her career while raising two children.
"I can't say I have ever set boundaries or protected my wellbeing in the way that's talked about now. I was incredibly nervous about how I was going to carry on my career when I was pregnant with my first child as my career was so important to me and I didn’t want to give it up, people are so much more open now but no women I knew at the time had a small baby and travelled extensively with their job but Ruth (Chapman) was so supportive. She was like, 'We're going to make this work when you come back, because we want and need you to be in this business.'"
Her approach required significant sacrifice and discipline. She would leave promptly to collect her daughter but then always log back on after the bedtime routine to clear the rest of the day, clearing emails late into the night. This wasn't sustainable in the traditional sense, but it worked for that phase of her life and career. Liane was and still am extremely ambitious and always had the mindset that she could do it all. Although she acknowledges one can never do it all to the standard one wants, her mindset remained: keep going and achieve.
"I used to say putting my headphones in on the tube was my me time, which is sort of ridiculous, but I used to come out the door and put my headphones in. This commute is like me time before I get to my job or back home and need to deliver."
Now, with more experience and perspective, Liane has learned to prioritise her wellbeing differently, running three times a week and being more selective about commitments. It's an evolution rather than a revolution with an understanding that different life phases require different approaches.
Redefining Success
Perhaps the most significant shift in Liane's perspective has been around success metrics. Early in her career, success was tied to external achievements - securing the newest designers, closing the best deals, being first to market with emerging trends.
"When you're in that very fast-paced buying environment, everything's about how are we going to source the next, newest designer, scale them and secure it and be the go-to partner. A lot of success was linked to that."
Over time, her definition has evolved to something far more personal and sustainable, with Liane sharing that her vision of success is now that she is content with what she is doing and a recognition that everything starts with oneself.
"I've really untangled my self worth from just my career and my job. That's honestly taken me a really long time. You're in this bubble where those decisions are all really important, but everything starts with yourself."
This shift included recognising her own role in creating the intensity she sometimes found challenging, whilst acknowledging that ultimately she was and is in control of how busy she is. We all have control over our own narratives.
Practical Wisdom for Career Longevity
Liane's advice for building a sustainable career comes from hard-won experience. She's particularly passionate about encouraging women to advocate for themselves professionally. Too often, she observes women hesitate to ask for opportunities or voice their ideas because they worry about appearing pushy, but this self-limitation only holds them back. Her philosophy is straightforward: if you don't ask, someone else will, and you'll never know what might have been possible. Liane advises taking calculated risks and approaching these conversations with elegance and confidence, and believes speaking up for oneself is an essential skill for career advancement.
My Take
In a world today where the loudest voices can sometimes have more influence than they might deserve, Liane shows how quiet authority, and deep expertise can bring the biggest positive cultural influence. She doesn't need to announce her vision at high volume - she simply believes in it, lives it, and naturally others follow and look to her for inspiration.
Her emphasis on real customer feedback over social media influence feels particularly relevant, especially with luxury clients. In my decade of experience in luxury fashion and personal shopping, many top clients over 35 don't draw style inspiration from social media - they need clothing that serves their actual lifestyle rather than what photographs well. And this small group of top clients is driving a significant percentage of revenue for the brands they choose to shop with. The buyer-personal shopper feedback loop that Liane champions provides businesses with authentic insight into genuine client needs and purchasing behaviour.
Liane's honest reflection on work-life balance particularly resonates with me and is becoming a common theme across my conversations with accomplished and inspiring women. Rather than presenting a perfect formula, she acknowledges the messiness of building a meaningful career while navigating other life priorities. I love that her refusal to romanticise the struggle while also not regretting her choices.
Most importantly, Liane's story reinforces my belief that the strongest and most inspiring careers across every industry, especially fashion, are built from deep expertise, authentic customer obsession, and the courage to trust your instincts even when everyone around you has strong opinions.
It can be easier said than done, but thankfully Liane’s elegant and timeless approach is the perfect example.
Follow Liane’s journey on LinkedIn and Instagram at @liane_wiggins.
About the author: Pippa Mellor is an ILM L7 Executive Coach and Personal Shopping Consultant whose services include 1:1 fashion career coaching and helping luxury and premium brands to increase revenue and VIP client loyalty by building strategic personal shopping programmes.