Meet The Most Powerful Man In Fashion

Not who you were expecting? With a US$1.15 billion deal, Farfetch’s José Neves has gone from the industry’s David to its Goliath.

- Kareem Rashed

SUN-TZU’S THE ART OF WAR is a favourite reference for many a hard-charging power broker, but José Neves cites a decidedly less aggressive classic of Chinese literature as an early influence: Lao-tzu’s Tao Te Ching. After stumbling upon Taoism’s foundational text as a 13-year-old in northern Portugal, Neves delved into Eastern philosophies and emerged as a Zen Buddhist. It’s a school of thought that the founder and CEO of Farfetch, the luxury online retailer with the largest audience in the world, still follows today.

“I’m a Buddhist by philosophy, not by religion,” says Neves, who spends much of his time in London with his wife and five children. As we Zoom, he certainly looks like a Zen acolyte by way of Jil Sander, wearing a minimalist black T-shirt against the backdrop of a pristine, all-white room. That morning, he’d meditated for 45 minutes – though he endeavours to employ mindfulness throughout the day. The practice has been especially helpful during the turbulence of the past year. “The essence of Zen is: be here now,” he says. “In crisis, that’s really useful because you train your mind to be aware that the external situations around you, they’re all going to pass. Your role is to allow them to be there and find out what is the right action for you.”

His discipline has paid off. As the fashion industry grappled with shuttered stores, unsold inventories and how to survive it all, Farfetch experienced staggering growth: an 82 per cent year-over-year increase in gross profit. But it wasn’t just a case of luck fuelled by homebound shoppers on stimulus spending sprees. Even Farfetch’s digital competitors were forced to cancel orders and shut down fulfilment centres, inevitably leading to losses.