The rapidly growing e-tailer Farfetch, which was valued at US $1 billion in March of this year following a round of investment, has acquired the London multi-brand store Browns. The aim of the purchase is to bulk up Browns’ existing online business and use it to experiment with what is emerging as fashion retail’s holy grail: merging online and offline (in-store) into one unified experience.
Joan Burnstein, who founded Browns in 1970 with her late husband, Sidney, will now serve as honorary chairperson and her two children will become advisors, each with a seat on the Board. Net-a-Porter’s former fashion director, Holli Rogers, has been named CEO.
Browns is known for having launched and nurtured labels such as John Galliano, Alexander McQueen, Missoni, Prada, and Donna Karan in Britain—but that’s all in the past, and what is of concern to Farfetch’s Founder and CEO, José Neves, is the future.
“The vision is to answer the question: ‘How will people shop for luxury fashion five or 10 years into the future?’ This won’t be purely online,” said José Neves, to WWD . “The answer, we believe, will be a seamless merger of a fantastic physical experience with powerful, yet subtle, technology.”
Neves founded Farfetch in 2008 with a vision of connecting global fashion consumers with local boutiques. Void of any inventory, Farfetch serves as a virtual shopping mall of independent, multi-brand fashion retailers worldwide and sells merchandise for stores like Browns, L’Eclaireur in Paris, Fivestory in New York, Candy Sister in Tokyo, and D’NA in Riyadh.
Farfetch is also the lead partner for the recently announced Style.com/Arabia – DDFC Fashion Prize. Valued at over US $250,000 annually, it is the region’s first fashion fund and is open to womenswear designers based in the Arab world. The preliminary application deadline is May 15th.
