Farfetch taps Yasmin Sewell to head up global editorial, creative teams

By

Benjamin Fitzgerald

Published
Aug 11, 2017

Following up on the news last month that Farfetch Group had formed a global content and commerce partnership with Condé Nast, the British luxury e-commerce group has tapped Yasmin Sewell to head up its global editorial and creative teams.

A fashion heavyweight in her own right, Sewell joins the Farfetch team as Vice President of Style and Creative. In a role-first for the London-based firm, the Australia-born Sewell will lead Farfetch's global editorial and creative teams, responsible for overseeing all content, and overall styling direction on-site, "bringing to the company a wealth of experience from both fashion and retail," read a statement from Farfetch Group. 

The former-Style.com recruit will report into John Veichmanis, Chief Marketing Officer, who was only appointed to the role in June.

“Millennial customers have really connected with our proposition as the diversity of product on the platform massively appeals to their sense of individuality," said Veichmanis, to the press.

"Building on our recent content and commerce partnership with Condé Nast, we want to develop new and inventive creative formats that help our customers discover more of the wonderful product available at Farfetch. We’re so excited about Yasmin joining the team to lead our style and creative strategy as she shares our passion for innovative digital thinking and product discovery.”

In other words, Farfetch wants to feed fresher, edgier content via its e-comm platform, but still remain high-end.

After successful senior creative tenures at Browns and Liberty in London, Sewell moved on to be fashion director for Style.com, the platform purchased by Farfetch in June, which then folded in to Farfetch, as it failed to gain traction.

A veritable multi-tasker, Sewell co-founded label Etre Cecile, and still runs a consultancy agency. More recently, she was in Sydney to take part in the fashion shows and festivities of her homeland's resort fashion week in May.

Here, she expressed her passion for cutting-edge retail and innovation, something lacking in Australia, according to Sewell, despite Australia's market size and potential. It's a country international retailers, like her new work home Farfetch, are chasing down.

""I'm always disappointed by [Australian] retail," Sewell told the Sydney Morning Herald.

"With Net-A-Porter, Matches and Farfetch, Australia are the top three customers, so why don't we have the most phenomenal department stores? Kick ass department stores that are leading the world that have amazing spaces, amazing retail, beautiful merchandise and phenomenal marketing that is pushing boundaries, which is what I'm all about."

The appointment comes amid a year of pivotal milestones for the company, including the launch of a employee shares scheme, the appointment of Natalie Massenet as non-executive co-chairman, the unveiling of Farfetch’s business unit Store of The Future and the collaboration with Gucci to launch new a delivery service ‘Store to Door in 90 Minutes’ in 10 global cities.

Farfetch Group consists of a namesake e-commerce site, the white label division Farfetch Black & White, the business unit Store of The Future and Browns (including Brownsfashion.com).