The Frankie Shop founder is the woman behind every outfit you've ever liked on Instagram
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29th Oct 2019
There is a certain je ne sais quoi that the French are born with and the rest of us admittedly are not. Gaelle Drevet, founder of The Frankie Shop—the multi-continental mecca girls flock to for their every outfit need—knows this well.
“[Fashion is] something, somehow, that we are born with; there’s something about aesthetic in this country that is very strong,” she explains over the phone from Paris to Vogue. But it took her living in London (she now juggles between Paris and New York) to lean into her natural style instincts and explore the potential for Parisian chic to be translated into a new context: what if the rest of us—the French at heart—could, at least, dress the part?
After her work as a journalist and television producer relocated Drevet from New York to London, the discovery of the Portobello and Shoreditch markets led her to India, where she witnessed first-hand all that is involved in the process of fashion design. Shortly after, she co-founded Pixie Market, which she eventually departed from to start The Frankie Shop in the Lower East Side of New York and the Le Marais district in Paris four years ago, solidifying her knack for prophesying what will soon be en vogue in our wardrobes and our travel itineraries.
Once a small haunt known only to locals and savvy fashion fans, The Frankie Shop has fast become synonymous with the style set; every one of its offerings a sold-out bestseller, easily spotted on the likes of Pernille Teisbaek or Georgia Fowler at fashion week. At each of its locations and online, the store sells its own brand as well as a curation of international labels-to-know like Low Classic, Ganni and A.W.A.K.E Mode. Below, the journalist-cum-founder and curator of The Frankie Shop chats to Vogue about the transformative role of Instagram in innovating customer engagement, the enduring relevance of the bricks-and-mortar retail store and the value of scaling slowly in a world moving at a fast-charged pace.
“I started Frankie [because] I wanted to do something else, that was more in alignment with the kind of fashion I was looking for,” explains Drevet. “A bit more grown up, a bit more minimalist, a bit more day-to-day, or day-to-night, I guess. Something you don’t have to change [out of, and] a bit tomboy as well. I don’t know if this was in alignment with my age or something that I felt I needed as well, but I couldn’t really find this kind of fashion, or what I was looking for so I decided to come up with it.”
The result was a mix of stylish-but-utilitarian offerings for the everyday woman (blazers; trousers; all-in-ones), but at an affordable price point. “I like the idea of gifting yourself a lot. I mean we’re girls, there’s a reason why we always say there’s nothing in our closets and and we are always looking for an excuse to buy something new,” she says. “Unless your wallet is really expendable, then you need to [be wary of] your budget; I always believed in helping this girl out. And hopefully at Frankie she will find some good inexpensive pieces that will work all the time, that’s where I come in.”
In the same vein, Drevet does not synonymise luxury with style—an important distinction we often forget to make. “Style is not about your wallet, really. It’s a pleasure to mix high and low… Like if you see something at The Row, and you want to recreate the look, you can. It’s about getting the look at an affordable price.”
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Simultaneously, she’s conscious of the ways in which digital platforms serve as outlets for inspiration, and for The Frankie Shop, an outpost for sales. “Instagram definitely helps sell things, because you see something in a photo and how it’s styled. You offer the possibility to customers, who may be [hesitant to buy it] in the beginning,” Drevet reflects. “Seeing how different girls can wear it in so many ways—dress it up, dress it down, belt it, make it more tomboy, more girly or even sexy—opens it right away to so many more customers.” She adds: “People walk into the store with images from Instagram and they want to get [certain items] based on images.”
Drevet reflects how influencers with personal styles that aligned with the brand (think Linda Tol or Vanessa Hong) navigated their way to the store organically, encouraging their audiences to follow suit. “It was the right bloggers,” she explains. “It just so happens that these people also work with really big brands like Chanel. I’m grateful they think Frankie can find space in their closet. From there, it kind of snowballed.” She continues: “A good blogger knows to keep her ear open, and as long as it matches her style, there’s not only [big name designers]… These girls know how to mix high and low and they are not afraid of brands that are unknown, because we were unknown.”
And although The Frankie Shop has a significant online presence, recently delivering an exclusive edit on Net-a-Porter for the first time, Drevet is cautious not to underestimate the value of a physical store, especially its potential to place up-and-coming areas on the map. “It’s super-important because some people still love the shopping experience. I’m actually an older person, and it would be so sad if towns were filled with banks and supermarkets only, so I hope we keep our shops. I love discovering new shops when I go to different cities and I’m so disappointed when I see the same brands all over [the place].” She reflects further: “These neighbourhoods match this feeling of the curation I have. Kind of young, and upcoming. Not super-clean [or] super-dirty; a work in progress.”
As for what Drevet will put on our radars next, she emphasises her customer’s needs come first, though she remains open to collaboration with more e-commerce destinations that will help the brand to grow its global reach, step-by-step. And even as the Frankie girl evolves, and with her, an ever-stylish progeny of women, her ability to look and feel stylish without compromising her comfort remains key. “[Ask yourself] what are you feeling comfortable in? That should be where you start.” Trust that the rest will follow.