MY LIFE, MY STYLE
Step inside the chic London home of Farfetch’s Stephanie Phair
It’s a crisp autumn day when I meet Stephanie Phair, the luxury e-tailer Farfetch’s chief customer officer, at the elegant Kensington townhouse she shares with her husband and their three young children. Her warm demeanour and simple attire (an Anna Mason denim shirt and Christopher Kane leather trousers) belie her status as one of fashion’s most powerful women, whose staggeringly successful career saw her, aged just 40, become the youngest person to be appointed as the chair of the British Fashion Council. There, she is tasked with cementing London’s status as a global fashion hub and championing home-grown design talent.
Half-Argentinian and half-Canadian, Phair was born in Mexico but grew up in the UK, attending the Lycée Français in South Kensington and studying politics, philosophy and economics at Oxford University. ‘Fashion wasn’t on my radar at that point,’ she says. ‘I had aspirations of being a foreign correspondent, like Kate Adie or Oriana Fallaci.’ In 1999, she moved to New York on a whim – ‘all I knew is that I wanted to live there’ – and began her climb up the ladder as an account executive at Siren PR, before working at Issey Miyake and finally Portero, one of the first online marketplaces for pre-owned luxury accessories. ‘All of those jobs were PR- or marketing-related, and they were instrumental in building my career,’ she tells me. ‘Nothing is more important than communicating clearly and concisely, and bringing people with you.’
A decade later, she moved back to London to be with her now-husband Fred, a chief investment officer at a wealthmanagement company with whom she has been friends since their second day at university. She landed a job launching the Outnet, Net-A-Porter’s discount site, growing the business from two employees to 150, introducing collaborations with designers including Oscar de la Renta and establishing the site’s own label Iris & Ink. After seven years, Phair left her post to join Farfetch as its chief strateg y of ficer, charged with developing and leading the company’s long-term expansion plans. ‘We established the Farfetch vision of retail, putting our clientele right at the centre,’ she says.
Today, as chief customer officer, Phair is responsible for the endto-end experience of the consumer. ‘I think after the initial shock of the pandemic, when no one knew what was up or down, these last six months have been extraordinary for Farfetch,’ she says. ‘We have been able to continue shipping from our boutique partners even though there were lockdowns in many countries, and we’ve captured a whole group of customers who were previously inperson shoppers but are now moving online.’
Her own sartorial tastes see her leaning towards classic pieces by British labels including Victoria Beckham and Burberry. ‘There’s also a bit of vintage in there, along with up-and-coming brands like the Vampire’s Wife, which makes wonderful dresses,’ she says. ‘If I have a television
She is tasked with cementing London’s status
as a global fashion hub and championing home-grown design talent
appearance, I’ll wear something by Edeline Lee, and I love Petar Petrov, who had his debut show at London Fashion Week last February. We’ve actually been stocking him on Farfetch for ages and now he’s coming into his own. Finding amazing emerging designers is something we pride ourselves on.’ When it comes to jewellery, Phair sports a timepiece by La Californienne, ‘a brand that soups up vintage watches’, and two delicate Plume de Chanel rings. ‘They’re loosely related to babies, but my husband refused to call them push presents,’ she says, laughing.
The couple bought the house around eight years ago and set about refurbishing it with guidance from the interior designer Sophie James. ‘The previous owners had lived there since 1972 and it had apricot walls and brown carpets,’ Phair says.
‘Sophie’s wonderful and helped us think through everything from the joinery to the marble and the taps.’ There are a number of striking artworks on display, including a rice-field-guardian statue from Borneo and paintings from their honeymoon in Chile. ‘I like to buy art when we’re travelling because it has incredible memories attached to it,’ she says. Similarly, Phair explains that the diverse mix of furniture has developed from her personal experience, pointing out a beautiful 1920s rosewood chest that she bought in her early twenties. ‘I got it from Craigslist, which is the equivalent of Gumtree in New York,’ she says, ‘and when I went to fetch it from a house on the Upper West Side, I ended up spending two hours talking to the old lady who owned it.’ It’s just one example of Phair’s philosophy as a collector – as she puts it: ‘I think the best objects are the ones that have a story to tell.’