Fred Segal, the retail big who helped form the style and cultural panorama in Los Angeles by bringing new designers to the market and offering themes for A-list purchasers like The Beatles, Diana Ross, The Jackson 5 and Angelina Jolie, is lifeless. He was 87.
Segal died Thursday of a stroke on the Windfall Saint John Well being Middle in Santa Monica, a publicist stated.
He suffered a stroke on February 5, 2014, which he himself introduced on a Christmas card he despatched to family and friends on the finish of the 12 months, with the message that “life as we knew it might by no means be the identical”. However the enigmatic Segal confirmed his persona and can to stay by inserting a photograph of himself sporting a hat, smoking a cigarette and elevating his center finger with the slogan “Stroke this”.
On the time, daughter Annie Segal informed The Hollywood Reporter, “The medical doctors warned us of a low likelihood of survival, so we had been ready for the worst. It’s a miracle that he not solely lives, however lives nicely below the circumstances. “
Segal opened his first retailer of the identical identify on Santa Monica Boulevard in West Hollywood in 1961, a designer denim emporium. In accordance with the model’s web site, it was a modest 350 sq. ft, with 85 p.c of the stock being “its eponymous denim denims, alongside shirts and pants in chambrays, velvet, and flannel.”
He later moved operations to the place he’s greatest identified on Melrose Avenue and Crescent Heights Boulevard, and it attracted crowds and created site visitors jams as customers got here down to purchase denim, which is typical costs for a lot exceeded this time. (Segal offered denims for $ 19.95 whereas different shops offered kinds for $ 3.)
Segal proved he had a aptitude for aspiring designers, however he additionally formed a retail expertise that may rework the business. He pioneered the then novel shop-in-shop idea and experimental retailing that launched up-and-coming labels that characterize the SoCal fashion (suppose Juicy Couture, Laborious Sweet Cosmetics, and Earl Denims).
In accordance with the corporate, early clients included The Beatles, Elvis Presley, Ross and The Jackson 5, and Farrah Fawcett was photographed on a skateboard in Segal’s denims for an promoting marketing campaign.
Segal, who created an environment wherein artists, musicians and trend-obsessed fashionistas may meet below one roof, owed a part of his success to honesty along with his clients.
“I discovered at a younger age that integrity is the place there is no such thing as a competitors,” he stated. “So if persons are utterly sincere with themselves after which with everybody round them, there is no such thing as a competitors on this.
“For instance, after I was promoting to my clients in my store they usually got here to purchase this or that, once they placed on an outfit and requested me for recommendation, I’d typically say, ‘Take this off, do not even purchase this, this might be ridiculous, you do not even look good in it. ‘ That’s actually deep honesty. You do not discover that in enterprise life, you understand? “
The retailer’s iconic ivy-covered location in West Hollywood has turn out to be a celeb hotspot over time, and was featured prominently in basic teen comedy Clueless in 1995.
“Lucy! The place’s my white collarless Fred Segal shirt? ”Alicia Silverstones Cher says within the Amy Heckerling-directed movie. A number of years later, Reese Witherspoon’s Elle Woods explains in Legally Blonde (2001), “And final week I noticed Cameron Diaz at Fred Segal and stopped her from shopping for that actually hideous angora sweater.”
Jokes apart, it wasn’t unusual to see Diaz or different A-list stars like Jennifer Aniston searching Fred Segal’s shops or eating at his bustling on-site restaurant, which for a few years was an business hang-out for lunch and dinner .
Segal expanded his model to a number of outposts as his California empire grew with addresses in Santa Monica and he crammed the areas with members of the family. His son Michael finally grew to become CEO and his daughters Annie and Sharon as soon as had their very own companies within the enterprise.
In 2012, New York-based media firm Sandow acquired worldwide licensing rights for the Fred Segal identify. The corporate is now owned by World Icons, who acquired the model in 2019.
In accordance with the corporate’s web site, there at the moment are areas on Sundown Boulevard; in Malibu; at LAX; in Bern, Germany; and in Taipei, and reviews this week stated further areas are deliberate for Las Vegas. Nonetheless, it hasn’t been resistant to the current decline in retail enterprise as its Santa Monica location closed and the Melrose Outpost is now not the hotspot it as soon as was.
Segal “was an innovator, a thought chief, a rule breaker, a mentor to so many, such a lover of life and a philanthropist,” his household stated in a press release. “Everybody who knew him felt his highly effective power. He labored his entire life to have self-love and to show us all to like each other. He impressed us to the final to by no means hand over. He might be liked and celebrated perpetually. “
Among the many survivors are his spouse Tina; 5 kids, 10 grandchildren, two great-grandchildren, two stepchildren and one stepchildren.
Donations on his behalf may be made to the Segal Household-United World Basis at 10960 Wilshire Blvd. Suite 1100 Los Angeles, CA 90024.
