Frank Mechaly
| Frank Mechaly | |
|---|---|
| Born |
May 9, 1975 Marseille, France |
| Nationality | French |
| Occupation | Fashion designer |
Frank Mechaly (born May 9, 1975) in Marseille, France and raised in St. Tropez, is a jeans designer and brand maker, specializing in premium denim. Though he has successfully launched a number of brands including Sacred Blue and Blue Cult, he is probably best known as the founder and creator of 575 DENIM (now being renamed May75 brand) which has been embraced by celebrities such as Cameron Diaz who made a point of publicly acknowledging her affinity for the jeans during an appearance on Saturday Night Live. Mechaly has now launched his much-anticipated new brand of premium denim called RockStar.
Coming from a family with a deeply rooted history in the trade, Frank’s grandfather used to import Levi's jeans into Morocco in the 50s. His father David Mechaly was the original creator and manufacturer of the legendary 70s brand MacKeen, which was the only premium denim brand with similar international recognition as Levis but started in the south of France. MacKeen did open offices in the U.S. and was worn by original cast members of Charlie’s Angels (ironically Cameron Diaz who embraced Frank Mechaly’s 575 DENIM jeans also starred in the modern remake of Charlie’s Angels taking over the iconic role of Farrah Fawcett who wore his father’s MacKeen jeans) Frank Mechaly’s mother, Cathy Mechaly was also the original fit-model for MacKeen jeans.
Frank Mechaly draws upon his earliest memories of spending time at the factory with his father as the inspiration for his lifelong passion for designing jeans. Speaking in a candid interview he says: “I remember one particular Saturday morning back in the seventies, riding to the jeans factory with my father in his Porsche. I used to have free run of the entire factory as a child and in these days before stonewashing came about, I would go into one particular room and lie down in a huge pile of fresh denim, which has a very distinctive scent, and I knew at that time that I wanted to spend the rest of my life making jeans.”
The young Mechaly spent many of his days playing in the factory and experimenting on his own designs using scraps of denim. But at nine years old family hardships hit the Mechaly family and his father experienced financial failure and the loss of his business. Frank went from attending private schools and having hired chauffeurs to public school and a very frugal living in which the family struggled.
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Wikipedia