Farfetch launches Futures business support initiative and Virgil Abloh tribute

By

Sandra Halliday

Published
Mar 3, 2022

Farfetch is continuing its busy schedule of launches and initiatives, with news on Thursday of the debut of Farfetch Futures to champion designers from black and ethnic minority backgrounds. And it has also unveiled a tribute on the site to Off-White founder Virgil Abloh.

Farfetch Futures aims to provide businesses with support and greater visibility across the e-tailer’s network and continues work the platform has undertaken to support and promote black designers since 2020. This has already seen GMV from brands in the black designer edit on the business’s marketplace increase by 66% compared to 2019.

Its evolving programme launches on 3 March and provides collaborative commercial, marketing, content and technology support for selected designers on Farfetch.

The Futures programme focuses on relevant fashion designers “to advance their brand vision, growth and commercial success”. The initiative will ensure these partners are provided with tailored business support and increased visibility across the Farfetch platform, including its social channels.

Its launch partner in this is Grace Wales Bonner and her Wales Bonner brand.

The first iteration of the programme has been brought to life through a project inspired by West African style, “paying homage to the icons that paved the way for a new wave of avant-garde creativity, accompanied by exclusive pieces from Wales Bonner’s Spring/Summer 2022 collection”.

Meanwhile, its Virgil Abloh commemoration sees it launching a womenswear and menswear edit on-site alongside a tribute to the late designer.

In this, writer Octavia Bürgel says: “We’re the non-definable generation, and Virgil Abloh was a total polymath.”

Shot in Paris wearing womenswear pieces from the new Off-White collection, in partnership with Kaleidoscope magazine, she also shares her experience of collaborating with Abloh and continuing his work.  

“Virgil was someone who cared deeply about bringing new people into the fashion world, the music world, the artistic world, any world that he was in”, she says. “That was a huge lesson for me because I think ultimately the legacy we leave behind is something that’s channelled through the relationships we build.”

For menswear, Parisian photographer Djiby Kebe and Dayanne – co-founder of Bienvenue Projects, a consultancy studio that worked regularly with Virgil Abloh – also reflect on the designer’s legacy and wear pieces from Off-White’s new Spring collection.