Company Profile
Apparel & Fashion
Los Angeles, CA
Frank & Eileen
The perfect button-up, woven from Italian menswear fabric - and built without a dollar of outside capital.
The perfect button-up, woven from Italian menswear fabric - and built without a dollar of outside capital.
In an industry that treats provenance as a marketing line, Frank & Eileen treats it as an operations problem - one it can trace back to the field a fiber grew in.
The origin story sounds almost accidental. While working on an unrelated knit line during the late 2000s, Audrey McLoghlin stumbled onto a family-owned Italian mill whose cloth was milled for luxury men's shirts. She fell for the fabric, then did the un-obvious thing: she abandoned the knit project and built an entirely new brand around the material - a women's button-up cut from a cloth the market had only ever offered to men. She named it Frank & Eileen, after her Irish grandparents, who married in Co. Wicklow in 1947.
That founding move - reaching for a menswear fabric to solve a womenswear problem - set the pattern for everything that followed. The company's own mantra doubles as a supply-chain map: "Born in Ireland, woven in Italy, made in sunny California." Woven garments are produced in Italy with a traceable chain from fiber origin; the soft knits are knit, sewn, washed and dyed by artisans in Los Angeles. Every fabric the brand produces meets the Oeko-Tex Standard 100 certification for the absence of harmful chemicals.
We make the best woven shirts and soft knits in the world - sustainably.
Designs and sells women's and men's woven shirting plus a full collection of soft knits, dresses, denim, blazers and sets - built to last rather than to churn seasonally.
Customers who want timeless, well-made wardrobe pieces in the contemporary tier. Public wearers cited in press include Oprah Winfrey, Meghan Markle and Angelina Jolie.
It answers the fast-fashion problem - low durability and opaque sourcing - with traceable materials, ethical manufacturing and garments designed to stay in rotation for years.
The brand's supply chain is unusually short and unusually legible. Here is how a single garment comes together.
The name and spirit - a grandparents' love story from Co. Wicklow, 1947.
Fabric from a storied family-owned mill, traceable to the field of origin and Oeko-Tex certified.
Knitwear knit, sewn, washed and dyed by Los Angeles artisans; shirting finished with the brand's fit.
Plenty of brands sell a clean white shirt. Fewer own their sourcing story end to end, and fewer still have done it without selling equity. Frank & Eileen's differentiation is structural, not stylistic: it has stayed 100% woman-owned, kept the same ethical manufacturers for over a decade, and made sustainability a measurable supply-chain discipline rather than a campaign.
That discipline earned outside validation. In 2020 the company became a Certified B Corporation, and at its 2024 recertification it retained the highest impact score of any woman-owned U.S. fashion brand - a top-tier result among all U.S. apparel companies. The absence of venture capital is not a limitation the brand apologizes for; it is the thing that lets it grow at the pace craft allows.
Born in Ireland, woven in Italy, made in sunny California with love.
Positioning against elevated-basics peers (illustrative, based on public comparisons):
The catalog started with one hero - the women's button-up - and widened into a full wardrobe. Today the line spans button-ups and tops, tees and tanks, cardigans and sweaters, vests, pants and denim, shorts, skirts, dresses, coordinated sets, jackets and blazers, plus a men's shirting collection built on the same Italian fabric heritage.
The business model is direct-to-consumer and B2C retail. The brand sells through its own Shopify Plus store, branded retail, and select specialty and department stores - a slow-fashion posture that favors durable, timeless pieces over rapid seasonal turnover.
The brand's calm exterior hides a rough early ledger. McLoghlin launched Frank & Eileen in 2009 after declaring personal bankruptcy during the Great Recession, when she could no longer carry the rent on four retail stores. A decade later, the pandemic wiped out roughly $11 million in orders effectively overnight. The company pivoted rather than folded - a stretch the founder and press have since framed as the brand's defining stress test.
Those episodes shaped a culture built around resilience and reinvestment. In 2025, Forbes profiled the label's handling of tariff turmoil, treating its operating temperament - not its price point - as the story.
She has made a career out of transforming moments of adversity into opportunity.
Audrey McLoghlin launches the brand to reinvent the women's button-up with Italian menswear fabric.
The company is certified as a B Corporation and pledges $10M to support future women leaders.
After roughly $11M in canceled orders, the brand rebuilds operations through the pandemic.
Retains the highest impact score among woman-owned U.S. fashion brands.
Having met the first goal early, the commitment is doubled to $20M over ten years.
A standalone foundation for women's entrepreneurship education opens with a $1M initial gift.
McLoghlin is a signatory of the Giving Pledge, and she has wired that intent into the company. After fulfilling an initial $10 million commitment in about four years, she doubled it to $20 million over a decade to fund the education of women entrepreneurs. In March 2026 that work graduated into its own institution: the Frank & Eileen Foundation, seeded with a $1 million gift from the brand, aimed at unlocking entrepreneurship education for leaders from age 12 and up.
Founder conversations and brand media across the web:
Audrey McLoghlin founded the brand in 2009 in California, naming it after her Irish grandparents, Frank and Eileen.
Woven shirts are made in Italy from premium Italian fabrics, while the brand's soft knits are made locally in Los Angeles, California.
Yes. It became a Certified B Corporation in 2020 and holds one of the highest impact scores among U.S. apparel brands - and the highest among woman-owned U.S. fashion brands.
No. The company is 100% woman-owned and has retained full ownership without outside venture funding.
Its signature women's button-up shirt made from Italian fabrics originally reserved for luxury menswear, worn by public figures including Oprah Winfrey and Meghan Markle.