Fred Segal -- married six times!

[Dave P.]

Fred Segal Turned Jeans Into Hot Fashion in the Early 1960s
By James R. Hagerty, 3/5/21, Wall St. Journal

While working as a sales director for the H.I.S sportswear
brand in the early 60s, Fred Segal had a vision: Blue jeans
didn’t have to be just sturdy work pants costing a few bucks;
they could be recast as a fashion item & priced at $19.95.

His boss thought it was a crazy idea. So Segal quit & opened
his own Fred Segal store in the West Hollywood neighborhood
of L.A. He used lighter weight denim, added rhinestones &
other customized touches & lowered the waist to hip-level.
Celebrities & tourists thronged his tiny outlet. The store
boasted that its customers included the Beatles & Bob Dylan.

Segal opened another store nearby on Melrose Ave & made it a
beacon of avant-garde fashion. In the late 70s, he came out
with a line of satin jeans, shirts, jackets & caps.

He opened a larger store in Santa Monica in the 80s at the
site of a former skating rink & filled it with dozens of
independently owned boutiques.

A store, he said, should be a “daytime night club,” swirling
with music and beautiful people.

After a stroke 7 years ago, Segal needed a wheelchair but
enjoyed shuttling between homes in Calif & Cabo San Lucas,
Mexico. He died Feb. 25 at the age of 87.

Frederick Mandel Segal was born Aug. 16, 1933, in Chicago &
grew up in the Venice neighborhood of Los Angeles. His parents
split up when he was very young, & he was raised by his mother
& two older sisters. Around age 6 he began earning money by
shining shoes.

Before starting his fashion career, he studied at UCLA, but
didn’t graduate & served as a cook in the U.S. Army. “He lied
to the powers that be & said he had cooking experience because
he didn’t believe in war & didn’t want to be sent off to kill
people,” said Annie Segal, one of his daughters.

In the mid-70s, he turned a former motel & apartment complex
into a shopping center called the Country Mart, featuring a
picnic area & playground, in Malibu, Calif. Around the same
time, his stores featured jeans pieced together from waistbands
sliced off faded old jeans, including the belt loops. Those
jeans sold for $120 apiece.

Rick Caruso, a developer of high-end shopping centers in the
L.A. area, said Segal broke the mold of dull strip malls
anchored by drugstore & supermarket. Instead, Segal created
lively mixes of restaurants & boutiques that provided “an
energy & uniqueness,” Caruso said. “That’s what I wanted to do.”

The Fred Segal brand is now owned by Global Icons LLC of L.A.,
headed by Jeff Lotman. There are Fred Segal stores in L.A.,
Malibu, Taipei & Bern, Switzerland. Mr. Lotman said Fred Segal
stores will open soon in Las Vegas and Seoul.

Segal is survived by his wife, Tina Segal, along with 5 kids,
10 grandkids & two great grands. Five earlier marriages ended
in divorce.

In his parallel career as a peace activist, he campaigned
for better relations between Israelis & Arabs. In 1987, he
was among hundreds of Americans & Russians who walked from
Leningrad to Moscow to promote peace. He created what he
called a peace park in Malibu & organized a birthday party
there for the Dalai Lama in 1989. The spiritual leader
reciprocated by planting a Bodhi tree in Segal’s park.

https://www.wsj.com/articles/fred-segal-turned-jeans-into-hot-fashion-in-the-early-1960s-11614956400