Will Frasers Group relaunch Matchesfashion next year?

It looks like Frasers Group may be planning to relaunch Matchesfashion in 2026 although it’s not a dead cert and there’s been no confirmation from the company.

A report said the Matchesfashion.com website was back online with the words “relaunching 2026” under the name. But the situation is unclear as all that’s there as we published this story was an almost-empty page in the brand’s familiar green tone with no mention of a relaunch date.

A relaunch wouldn’t exactly come as a shock, although the speed with which Frasers had earlier closed the business did surprise some.

Frasers acquired the business out of administration for a reported £52 million just before Christmas 2023 but put it into administration in March 2024, citing the enormity of the task to turn it around. 

Matches — which began as a physical retailer — had been one of the pioneers of luxury online retail and once had a valuation of around £800 million. But a succession of CEOs failed to turn it into a digital-first business that was able to make a profit.

Its struggles came at the same time as other pioneers such as Farfetch and Net-A-Porter encountered their own profitability problems.

But despite the problem with online luxury real, the big names in the sector remain valuable properties with a high profile. Coupang’s acquisition of Farfetch and LuxExperience’s purchase of Yoox Net-A-Porter highlighted how in-demand they are.

As for Matchesfashion, there had been rumours of a comeback for it and in May, The Times reported that Frasers was working on a “members-only Matches Fashion relaunch” and that it had seen an “internal pitch deck” suggesting the luxury fashion webstore could be turned into what it described as the “Soho House of retail”.