Ruth Chapman is busy in her Wimbledon home, packing her bags for a holiday. One week in the Bahamas, and then New York. She visited Tanzania and Kenya at Christmas and has been spending time in Los Angeles.

“We have also been taking little breaks,” she adds, modestly. The buoyant 56-year-old mother-of-three opened her first Matches Fashion boutique in 1987 with her now-husband Tom, and after switching the focus from bricks and mortar to e-commerce, banked £400m when they sold the company last September.

This is why, for the first time in 30 years, the Chapmans can take a proper break. (Although they are still company advisers and retain a substantial stake in the operation.) Dealing in high-end designer fashion, Matches Fashion caters for a discerning clientele of men and women. Without mentioning names, Chapman describes last minute deliveries to red carpet events – “every day”, and flying entire wardrobes out to hotels in Hong Kong because luggage has been lost – “all the time”.

While the average spend per transaction is over £400, an astonishing 35pc of sales come from just 3pc of the customer base. Matches Fashion prides itself on the in-store experience, with three boutiques in London, as well as a six-floor Marylebone town house for bespoke private shopping, but the website is where over 90pc of sales are made.