Frank Mechaly

The case was extremely costly for Mechaly, financially and emotionally. He spent three years in litigation to the point that he lost 90% of his business due to being unable to run daily operations while fighting the lawsuit. He was no longer able to pay the 300 employees he had on payroll and in 2007 he ran out of resources and chose to give in to a settlement. Part of the settlement stated that over the course of a year the brand name must change from 575 to MAY75.

Father and son separated. Then they reconciled their partnership to promote Frank's line Sacred Blue. But problems were apparent and in 2004 Frank Mechaly left the company of Blue Cult/Sacred Blue with nothing, only the intention of giving up and moving back to France. A female love interest at the time convinced him to stay in the U.S., which he did and then started the now famous brand 575 DENIM, which was started in July 2004 and incorporated in August 2004. Frank was helped by Maurice Marciano, the CEO of Guess, Inc, who hired him to produce private label apparel and admired his distinctive vintage, distressed and worn details in jeans.

The first year that 575 DENIM brand launched, it was immensely successful. It was embraced by celebrities and particularly noted when actress Cameron Diaz, who was never paid for any endorsements, actually went to stores requesting to buy 575 DENIM and then wearing them at red carpet events and during her Saturday Night Live appearance. The brand was anticipated to have continued success when towards the end of 2004 they were sued by Levi Strauss & Co.

By the age of 18, Frank began to design freelance and worked for brands such as Blanc Bleu, H.Landers, D.D.P., and Texola, which was his own brand. He also created the brand Culture Couture. He would later go on to design the first line of Seven7 jeans in 2003.

In 1999, Frank's father David Mechaly moved from south of France to Los Angeles to start a new jeans company. Frank sent him samples of his Culture Couture brand and they decided to produce the line in the U.S. However, due to trademark issues in the U.S. it was renamed Blue Cult. Frank moved to the U.S. also.

Frank Mechaly (born May 9, 1975) in Marseille, France and raised in St. Tropez, is a jeans designer and brand maker, specializing in premium denim. Though he has successfully launched a number of brands including Sacred Blue and Blue Cult, he is probably best known as the founder and creator of 575 DENIM (now being renamed May75 brand) which has been embraced by celebrities such as Cameron Diaz who made a point of publicly acknowledging her affinity for the jeans during an appearance on Saturday Night Live. Mechaly has now launched his much-anticipated new brand of premium denim called RockStar.

LEVI STRAUSS filed civil case number C 06 2402 against Frank Mechaly and his Jeanius Corporation because they felt that the 575 DENIM brand was infringing upon their 500 series jeans. Mechaly claimed that he never had any intention of doing that and that the brand was inspired by his birthday, which was on May 9, 1975 (5-75) and that he had simply wanted to stand out by using a number rather than a word or letters like most other brands.