Frank & Eileen opens its first US flagship in New York City
After nearly two decades of wholesale and a half-decade of e-commerce, the clothing brand Frank & Eileen is opening its first U.S. flagship in New York City on Wednesday, in what its founder calls its “3.0” era.
The brand, which is known for its women’s button-up shirts and Italian-sourced materials, picked Madison Avenue on the Upper East Side to host its new, 2,000+ square-foot location. The store has the look and feel of an Irish country house, with a green front door, a mudroom, a fireplace and couches. Frank & Eileen’s products are higher-end, such as a $448 turtleneck and a $258 flannel. The brand has been certified as a B Corp since 2020, is headquartered in Los Angeles and has dozens of employees, per LinkedIn.
Frank & Eileen began selling at trade shows in New York City in 2009, so its return to the city is a “full-circle moment,” said founder and CEO Audrey McLoghlin, who named the brand after her Irish grandparents. The brand, a favorite of Meghan Markle, has a presence in boutiques and department stores — including internationally, in Asia, Australia and Europe. The brand does not disclose revenue, but e-commerce makes up the majority of its business and has shown “hockey-stick-like growth” of 5X since 2021, McLoghlin said.
Frank & Eileen does not have outside investors, and it’s now ready to focus on its own stores, McLoghlin told Modern Retail. “We finally feel ready to take the jump [into] a third distribution channel of direct-owned retail and allow [our customer] to have a complete immersion in the brand,” McLoghlin said. Speaking about the new store, she added, “I want our customers to tell us what they love about it, what else they want and what else they need. We’ll take the first year to learn a lot, and we’ll take the next steps from there.”
The evolution of Frank & Eileen
Frank & Eileen began in the wholesale channel, forming relationships with North American specialty stores and department stores, including Barneys New York and Ron Herman, both of which closed their U.S. locations due to the pandemic. Frank & Eileen still has a presence worldwide through Ron Herman in Japan, as well as through Nordstrom, the Four Seasons Resort, and boutiques like Merci Paris and Twigs. Frank & Eileen also has a self-described “shirt pub” in Sendagaya, Tokyo — it opened in 2014 and has sold more than 22,000 button-ups.
In 2019, Frank & Eileen started ramping up its e-commerce business, which McLoghlin used to operate by uploading styles “myself, at five in the morning, in my pajamas.” Frank & Eileen rebuilt the site with Shopify, worked with branding agencies and hired dedicated staffers in January 2020, right before the pandemic.
It was a hectic period. “In the first 90 days of onboarding, we went from, ‘This is the greatest opportunity [to] spread your wings’ to ‘Learn how to navigate a global crisis,'” McLoghlin said. Covid was McLoghlin’s “scariest time as an entrepreneur,” she said. WWD reported that in early 2020, Frank & Eileen saw 130,000 outstanding orders, or $11 million worth of revenue, disappear in 10 days.
However, the brand was able to pivot, McLoghlin told Modern Retail. When places canceled their wholesale orders, Frank & Eileen diverted that inventory and sold it directly to consumers. Today, the brand’s e-commerce department is its biggest team in the company. For years, though, loyal shoppers have asked for standalone stores.
“We’d heard from the customer, all the time, how much she would love to be in a Frank & Eileen environment,” McLoghlin said. “It was time to add that layer in. Like, ‘Sit down, put the kettle on, and have this experience that makes you feel like you’re really part of the brand — you’re not just buying a shirt.'”
Gabriella Santaniello, founder of the consultancy A Line Partners, said the brand has built up a “really solid niche” in higher-end basics. “Frank & Eileen has classics that I think get better with time,” she said. “They don’t fade, they retain their color, and they’re well-made.” The women’s shirts also have bigger collars than other brands — something more in line with men’s shirts, Santaniello said. “It’s like women’s wear with men’s tailoring,” she said. McLoghlin, for her part, has said she wanted to “reinvent the button-up for women.”
Frank & Eileen is still in boutiques and will continue to be. “Even if Frank & Eileen has stores, boutiques give them more points of presence,” Santaniello said. “You can get very excited about department stores, but [your brand] can ultimately get lost in the shuffle. You don’t have control over the way they promote [your brand] and the markdowns they take. With a boutique, I think they’re more apt to honor your brand and be proud to carry it.”
Frank & Eileen is marking its new store opening with a special Irish “cottage on wheels.” On Monday, the cottage drove around New York City, stopping at stores in the West Village and Mary O’s Irish Soda Bread in the East Village. On Wednesday, the cottage will park outside the Madison Avenue store from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m., and will offer soda bread, cups of tea and personal styling sessions to those passing by.
McLoghlin is excited to open the New York flagship around the holidays and said the store will be decorated appropriately. She’s also eager to talk to customers — both new and existing — about what they think of the store. That will help inform future plans, she said. “We really want to use this as a learning experience. … We don’t want to rush into what’s next.”