Fred Segal, the Los Angeles-based celebrity fashion designer named-checked in “Clueless and “Legally Blonde,” is dead at 87.
He passed away Thursday from stroke complications at a Santa Monica, Calif., hospital, his publicist announced Friday.
“(Segal) was an innovator, a forward thinker, a rule-breaker, a mentor to so many, such a lover of life and a humanitarian,” said his family in a statement obtained by The Hollywood Reporter. “Anyone who knew him felt his powerful energy. He worked his whole life to have self-love and to teach all of us to love one another.”
The designer opened his first shop in 1961 in West Hollywood, where he primarily sold denim jeans and flannel and velvet ensembles.
Among his earliest fans were the Beatles, Diana Ross, Elvis Presley and Farrah Fawcett, notes the company website.
“In the 1960s there weren’t paparazzi and tabloids and Internet like there are today,” Segal previously explained. “But the Beatles came in to shop, and it got so much attention that it caused a traffic jam outside.”
At the height of Fawcett mania during the mid-1970s, the “Charlie’s Angels” star was famously photographed riding a skateboard while sporting a pair of Segal’s hip-hugging jeans and a red shirt.
Segal’s designs also appealed to younger fashionistas — real and fictional. In the 1995 comedy “Clueless,” Alicia Silverstone’s Cher Horowitz throws a mini-tantrum when she can’t find one of her favorite tops.
“Lucy, where’s my white collarless shirt from Fred Segal!” Cher cries out in despair.
And “Legally Blonde” heroine Elle Woods, played by Reese Witherspoon, recalls an encounter with a Hollywood A-lister at his store.
“Last week, I saw Cameron Diaz at Fred Segal, and I talked her out of buying this truly heinous angora sweater,” notes Witherspoon’s character.
In September 2018, Jolie and kids Pax and Zahara were photographed by Hollywood Pipeline at a Fred Segal store, with one snap showing one of Jolie’s handlers carrying two full bags.
Segal is survived by his wife, Tina; five children and two stepkids, noted The Hollywood Reporter.
