In September, by the time that Milan Fashion Week rolled around, it had been several months since the founders of New Guards Group, Davide De Giglio and Andrea Grilli, exited the business that they’d sold four years earlier to Farfetch, the luxury marketplace, for an enterprise value of $675 million. And yet, on some level, the reality of their departure was only just sinking in.
Stephanie Phair, the president of Farfetch, based in London, was spending more time in Milan as NGG’s new chairman, and there had been layoffs at the company—a.k.a the brand “platform” that operates Off-White™. As one employee described it, “We would walk in and an entire section of floor would be gone.”
