DESIGNER CREATED EASY, BREEZY CALIFORNIA FASHION LOOK

FRED SEGAL 1933-2021

Fred Segal, whose clothing boutiques became an emblem of Los Angeles cool by selling form-fitting jeans and chambray shirts to the likes of Bob Dylan, Farrah Fawcett and the Beatles, died in Santa Monica on Thursday. He was 87.

The cause was complications of a stroke, according to a spokesperson for the family.

Segal became one of the West Coast’s best-known designers and retailers in the 1960s and helped shape the image of Southern California fashion as breezy, sexy and relaxed. His namesake ivycovered store became a hangout for fashionistas, Hollywood actors and big-name artists and musicians. For tourists, it often figured into sightseeing itineraries right alongside Grauman’s Chinese Theater and the Hollywood sign.

Segal opened his first store in 1960, a 700-squarefoot space on Santa Monica Boulevard. In 1961, he and Ron Herman, his nephew, opened a shop half as large on Melrose Avenue that carried only jeans, which they sold for $19.95 a pair — a price that was practically unheard-of at the time, when denim pants typically sold for $3 a pair.

“My concept was that people wanted to be comfortable, casual and sexy, so I thought it would work and obviously it did work,” Segal said in an interview with Haute Living magazine in 2012.

His designs were notable for fits that were unusual for the time. Pants were cut for men so they would fall low on the hips, for instance, and the stores also sold tightfitting French T-shirts and Danskin leotards.