Two years after its initial launch, The Farmers Market Global is unveiling its inaugural women’s activewear capsule collection and new online shop. The Los Angeles brand takes inspiration from founder Adrianne Ho’s personal experiences shopping at farmers’ markets and merges it with the wellness and lifestyle space.
The company’s brand logo skillfully combines the “Rx” prescription symbol with a tennis racket, which can be seen on a wide variety of its clothing pieces: biker shorts, sports bras, leather totes, garden totes and more. A brand tag line “sports is medicine” can be seen on their hats and sports bras.
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Ho describes the line in her campaign book as “compost the rich,” the customer, she said, “knows every promoter but only cares to go to Erewhon.”
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Here, Ho speaks to WWD about the brand’s inception, how she sees the intersection of agriculture space with wellness, paying it forward through working with local L.A. businesses, taking more ownership of her company and more.
WWD: What prompted you to get into the wellness and sports space within fashion?
Adrianne Ho: I’ve always had a passion for wellness, sport, food and style. As soon as I started modeling internationally, I carved a niche by launching the first blog with merchandise [Sweat the Style est. 2013] dedicated to promoting this unique culture and community. As my audience, experience and technology evolved, I got a stronger sense of the symbiotic relationship these individual interests have as a whole.
When I moved to Los Angeles in 2014, I became very interested in the incredible variety of local farmers’ markets as my main source of healthy, fresh food. I love everything about them, especially the farmers and purveyors, the super high-quality products and the accessibility. If I’m a global ambassador for Adidas, I can pay it forward by being an ambassador for the local farmers’ markets.
WWD: What is The Farmer’s Market Global? How would you describe it to a consumer?
A.H.: Farmers’ markets represent the best of what the world has to offer. That’s the simple ethos of The Farmers Market Global. We’re committed to making innovative, desirable and quality products to improve the wellness of people’s active lives.
As a concept brand that comes in a range of product offerings from locally sourced cold-pressed Arbequina extra virgin olive oil to buttery soft compression leggings with tennis ball pockets. Traditionally those two products don’t have anything to do with each other but in our world, they’re synergistic, which is just a fancy way to say they will both bring you joy by helping you perform and live better.
WWD: In your own words, how is The Farmer’s Market Global unique from other brands in the wellness space?
A.H.: The Farmers Market Global is an extension of my lifestyle. So, it’s naturally very authentic. Quality, comfort and timeless style are reimagined for today’s unique performance and technical needs.
I’ve always pushed the envelope with my personal style in a very natural way. Whether it was shooting a Stussy campaign at a hot yoga studio, cutting up a Supreme Kate Moss T-shirt to fit better for Barry’s or running the Williamsburg Bridge to Noah’s first downtown store with its owner for a segment on my TV show. I’ve always tried to promote these incredible groundbreaking brands and innovators in my own organic way.
I work and continue to work with so many amazing people and companies in this space and adjacent. I want to engage, promote and collaborate with those with the same values of excellence and vice versa.
WWD: How are you engaging local L.A. businesses globally, specifically those grounded in the agricultural space?
A.H.: We’ve worked on several special projects with regenerative farms, backyard farmers, mom-and-pop, as well as just-the-mom small businesses in Los Angeles. My goal is to highlight how amazing these small businesses and artisans are and cultivate a new audience for them through my platform, network and creating innovative contemporary collaborations. There is a lot to learn from the local environment and we can move forward together.
WWD: Why were you particularly drawn to the agricultural space? What prompted the intersection within the wellness/lifestyle space? Was this a white space you were seeing?
A.H.: Spending summers in the French countryside as a child with my mom’s family and living in California, I’ve been fortunate enough to enjoy and understand the incredible agriculture community. My mom passed away during the ideation process of the brand. She was a big supporter and I really want to manifest a brand that makes her proud.
I’ve developed a lot of great friendships with people who grow and prepare incredible food. Basically, what you put in your body is what you get out of your body. For us, there is a direct correlation between agriculture and wellness space.
WWD: How would you describe your target customer? What are they looking for in terms of activewear fashion, silhouettes and fit?
A.H.: We are bringing something fresh and new through innovation and creativity. Elegance, precision and sensibility in the color palette, fabrication and silhouette are very important to us. The activewear feels luxurious yet strong but not too fussy. We are getting incredible performance feedback and feel the entire product range from packaging to branding is mindful and modern. The prescription logo represents what people are looking for in their daily lives, especially those that are open to change and new ideas of what a brand can be.
WWD: Can you tell us about how the collection is being marketed?
A.H.: First and foremost, we’re storytellers. We’re telling an authentic story that resonates with people through film, photography and design on as many platforms as we can utilize. As a content creator and influencer, it’s about finding the balance between marketing and product development. We started by reimagining our version of a traditional pro shop at one of the best tennis stores in the world, The Racket Doctor, which happens to be in Atwater next to one of the best farmers markets on Sunday. Again, we think it’s symbiotic, not just a coincidence.
We collaborated with farmers and The Racket Doctor to make a product that celebrates the intersection of California tennis and agriculture. For me, all roads lead to activewear so we’re now expanding the product line and offering it on our website for the first time with some beautiful visuals.
WWD: Who is featured in the campaign?
A.H.: In our campaign, we decided to focus on our favorite Los Angeles hot spots. I think I was Maru Coffee’s first customer and I was hitting Erewhon before it became the hottest club in L.A. All joking aside, we wanted to have a bit of fun with the look book and have an elevated paparazzi feel.
I’ve always felt like a bit of an outsider as a model, so it was important for me to shoot a beautiful range of multicultural models for the first women’s active collection. I love all my fresh girls and think they all did such an amazing job for our first go at it. We have a bunch of new faces that I think people are really going to love. As a female creator, I understand how important it is to communicate that everyone is at a different phase of their wellness journey and we celebrate that process as a brand.
WWD: Why is now the right time to bring the brand direct to consumers? What are the challenges and opportunities of selling directly to consumers from your site as you see them?
A.H.: I’ve worked with a lot of different companies over the years in the retail and manufacturing space and thought it was time for me to have more ownership and accountability over that process. I’ve learned a great deal from those opportunities and now I’m very excited to reach out to my audience and create a premium product specifically for them. We will grow the community as well and learn from them. I look forward to the challenge and embracing the privilege of being a creator with a voice and platform. It’s really such an incredible position to be in.
WWD: What is your vision for the future of the company?
A.H.: We’re looking forward to growing the community as well as our team. We want to be a leader in the wellness space through innovation, creativity and making luxury yet down-to-earth products. This is my life’s work and I have an incredible passion for it. I hope to continue to tell the story and make small improvements every day.