French Connection

Stephen Marks, founder of designer label French Connection was born in Great Britain in 1947. He  married twice, first with designer Nicole Farhi, and in 1989, he married Alisa Green, who was fashion editor at Elle Magazine. Stephen Marks' first love was tennis and he won at Junior Wimbledon. He then went to work for a coat manufacturer.

Having joined the Paris house of Louis Feraud and launched their Miss Feraud label, Stephen Marks was then offered a directorship that he refused. He began his own work by buying hotpants in Paris and selling them to Selfridges in London. He became known as the "Hotpants King".

In 1969, Stephen started up his own company for womenswear and gave it the name "French Connection" in 1972. Marks then added menswear in 1976 and childrenswear in 1986.

The logo FCUK has been considered as rather controversial since it has been very often compared to a similar rude word. Their advertisements also tend to rather shock people and the British government has tried to ban the use of the logo in shops.

French Connection has also bought up the design house of Nicole Farhi.

French Connection is now a million dollar company with over 1,500 outlets opened all over the world. They have 77 shops in the U.K. and 30 shops in the United States. They offer a wide range of products including tailored womenswear, menswear, Jeans, sportswear, childrens clothes, and accessories such as shoes and bags, as well as bath and beauty products.

Since 2002, their shoes have been designed by famed footwear manufacturer Lambert Howarth.

In 2002, French Connection entered into an agreement with Japanese beauty products company Shiseido, to bring a new range of fragrances which went on sale in mid 2004. 

That Logo FCUK has been an offensive irritation to lots of people and has even had some legal challenges. Several large shops such as Macy's and Bloomingdales have banned it, and in August 2004 the company decided to discontinue their products. Their new ad campaigns will attempt to reflect something very different in the future.
 

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