Gentlemen, get out your plastic and get ready to spend till you bend: Mr. Porter, the male counterpoint to Net-a-Porter, the high-end fashion e-tailer, is finally live after more than a little hype over the past few months. Aimed at men who want to purchase clothes, accessories and other dapper goods online, Mr. Porter is a stand-alone destination, not an add-on to its sister site. "We started from scratch," said Natalie Massenet, the founder of Net-a-Porter. "We didn't want to simply include a men's tab on Net-a-Porter." Massenet hired the former British Esquire editor Jeremy Langmead and a team of experienced men's-wear editors to tailor the editorial content (style advice, guides and portfolios of non-models like the poet Nick Laird, above) for an audience that is generally held to be more interested in connoisseurship than in passing fads. Not surprisingly, the site will carry classic establishment brands like Ralph Lauren and Dunhill as well as harder-to-find heritage labels like Lock & Co. and Swayne Adeney Brigg. Its handsome black and white packaging will ship to 170 countries, proving that for stylish men, even e-commerce is all about the details.
