José Neves describes Farfetch, the business he founded, as an enabler rather than a vendor. ‘We have a global platform with the scale that can really help businesses,’ he explains, ‘but that also gives us huge responsibility to be a platform for good.’
José is fast to acknowledge that the fashion industry has a mixed record for sustainable practice, from which he doesn’t exclude Farfetch. ‘Luxury’s biggest problem was over production and producing lots of the wrong, non-recyclable goods full of plastic,’ he says. ‘I’m determined to be part of the solution, but I’m not here to be a holier-than-thou policeman or judge. We have enough of our own shortcomings to fix and our ethos must be one of partnership.’
Farfetch partners with many start-ups, which enables it to meet its targets faster and helps the start-ups to flourish, too. In its quest for a more regenerative approach, it has teamed up with The Restory, to launch its aftercare service, repairing and restoring leather goods rather than throwing them away. It also partners with Thrift+ to give clothes a second life; customers send in their pre-owned goods and Thrift+ takes those with no resale value and donates them to the charity of the customer’s choice. It’s far more efficient than taking unwanted items to a charity shop and Farfetch is now giving pre-owned goods a second life in 30 countries. Last December there was astonishing 662 per cent growth in the number of pre-owned items donated to the site compared with December 2019.
In collaboration with start-up PlatformE, Farfetch is launching a made-to-order service. ‘Brands and retailers never know how much demand there’ll be for a product, so they over-supply it,’ explains José. ‘With pre-ordering, brands can forecast demand properly. It’s good for consumers too, as they know they’ll havethat specially made Balençiaga jacket within four weeks.’
José is sympathetic to the challenges smaller brands face. ‘I was that small designer once so I know it’s not easy to walk into a factory and change things,’ he says, ‘but what we can do is give people better information.’ Farfetch now works with independent ethical rating agency Good On You, giving consumers an environmental impact calculator to assess how much harm a product is doing. A ‘positively conscious’ product means it scores well with Good On You, is pre-owned, made of sustainable or certified materials, or has been manufactured via a certified production process.
Ask José what advice he’d give to another brand and he says: ‘I wouldn’t tell them anything. Instead, I’d ask, “How can I help?” The really important thing is to make it easier for all brands to become regenerative. Let’s give them incentives and statistics to prove that products with conscious labels sell faster – just look at our own figures. For a small brand, resale, restoration and carbon offsetting are Herculean tasks. The beauty of Farfetch is it’s a platform that can ultimately make those tasks super simple.’
