Op-Ed: What the FarFetch and the Matches Deals Really Mean

Fashion, Features/Op-Ed

Last week marked not but two major fashion e-commerce deals, in which FarFetch and Matches found new owners. FarFetch was bought by Coupang, aka the Amazon of South Korea, and Matches was bought by Frasers, a large British mass market retailer. Both deals were an embarrassment for the luxury e-tailers, valuing them at a fraction of what they were worth not so long ago. In essence, they were rescue operations. This prompted a slew of reflections from the fashion commentariat about the death of luxury e-commerce. This is wishful thinking, of course, but the two deals mark a good time to reflect on what’s going on in the retail segment of the fashion industry.

Massimo Osti Studio Aims to Keep the Designer’s Spirit of Innovation

Fashion

In certain circles the late Italian designer Massimo Osti is a demiurge, a semi-mythical figure who in the ‘80s created a new language of design by combining his love of innovation with his love of functional clothing. He applied his graphic-design-trained mind, devoid of usual fashion preconceptions, to reimagining military gear and workwear in the context of modern city life, creating a new type of casual wear that gave equal weight to form and function. With C.P. Company and Stone Island Osti launched new chapters in menswear, one that was rooted neither in traditional tailoring of the old generation nor in the fanciful extremes of the new one. He combined form and function into a new aesthetic that spread like wildfire, first in Italy, then all over Europe and then the rest of the world.