Frédéric Fekkai (born 1958) is a French celebrity hairstylist and entrepreneur in the beauty industry.

Early life

Fekkai was born and raised in

Aix-en-Provence Aix-en-Provence, or simply Aix, is a List of communes in France with over 20,000 inhabitants, city and Communes of France, commune in southern France, about north of Marseille. A former capital of Provence, it is the Subprefectures in France, s ...

France France, officially the French Republic, is a country located primarily in Western Europe. Overseas France, Its overseas regions and territories include French Guiana in South America, Saint Pierre and Miquelon in the Atlantic Ocean#North Atlan ...

to Moroccan parents. In 1979 at the age of 21, Fekkai moved to

New York New York most commonly refers to: * New York (state), a state in the northeastern United States * New York City, the most populous city in the United States, located in the state of New York New York may also refer to: Places United Kingdom * ...

to start his career.

Career

Fekkai moved to Paris in 1979 as a 21-year-old apprentice to the acclaimed hairdresser Jacques Dessange. A quick learner, three years later he would move to New York to launch an American salon for Dessange. By 1989 he was opening his own salon in the city's

Bergdorf Goodman Building The Bergdorf Goodman Building is a department store building at 754 Fifth Avenue between 57th Street (Manhattan), 57th and 58th streets in Midtown Manhattan, New York City. The building, designed by Albert Buchman and Ely Jacques Kahn, was ere ...

. Famous for creating

hairstyle A hairstyle, hairdo, haircut, or coiffure refers to the styling of hair, usually on the human head but sometimes on the face or body. The fashioning of hair can be considered an aspect of personal grooming, fashion, and cosmetics, although ...

s for

models A model is an informative representation of an object, person, or system. The term originally denoted the plans of a building in late 16th-century English, and derived via French and Italian ultimately from Latin , . Models can be divided int ...

on both catwalks and magazine covers, he opened salons in both New York City and

Los Angeles Los Angeles, often referred to by its initials L.A., is the List of municipalities in California, most populous city in the U.S. state of California, and the commercial, Financial District, Los Angeles, financial, and Culture of Los Angeles, ...

and went on to launch his own line of hair care products. Fekkai has styled the hair of many prominent women, including

Kim Basinger Kimila Ann Basinger ( ; born December 8, 1953) is an American actress. She has garnered acclaim for her work in film, for which she has received various accolades including an Academy Award, a Golden Globe Award, a Screen Actors Guild Award, a ...

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Claudia Schiffer Claudia Maria Schiffer, Lady Vaughn (; born 25 August 1970) is a German model and actress. She rose to fame in the 1990s as one of the world's most successful models, attaining supermodel status. Born in Rheinberg, Germany, she initially asp ...

Debra Messing Debra Lynn Messing (born August 15, 1968) is an American actress. After graduating from New York University's Tisch School of the Arts, Messing starred in the television series ''Ned and Stacey'' on Fox Broadcasting Company, Fox (1995–1997) an ...

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, and

Hillary Clinton Hillary Diane Rodham Clinton ( Rodham; born October 26, 1947) is an American politician, lawyer and diplomat. She was the 67th United States secretary of state in the administration of Barack Obama from 2009 to 2013, a U.S. senator represent ...

. He is often regarded as a

celebrity Celebrity is a condition of fame and broad public recognition of a person or group due to the attention given to them by mass media. The word is also used to refer to famous individuals. A person may attain celebrity status by having great w ...

hair stylist. In 2015, Fekkai and his wife acquired Côté Bastide, a 25-year-old lifestyle brand from his hometown of Aix-en-Provence. The couple relaunched the business as Bastide, a collection of natural beauty and luxury home products. The name is inspired by the couple's own ''

bastide Bastides are fortified new towns built in medieval Languedoc, Gascony, Aquitaine, England and Wales during the 13th and 14th centuries, although some authorities count Mont-de-Marsan and Montauban, which was founded in 1144, as the first bastides ...

'' in Aix.

Personal life

Fekkai has been named in documents regarding

Jeffrey Epstein Jeffrey Edward Epstein ( , ; January 20, 1953August 10, 2019) was an American financier and child sex offender. Born and raised in New York City, Epstein began his professional career as a teacher at the Dalton School, despite lacking a col ...

, alleging that Epstein attempted to "look for girls" for him at a time he was in

Hawaii Hawaii ( ; ) is an island U.S. state, state of the United States, in the Pacific Ocean about southwest of the U.S. mainland. One of the two Non-contiguous United States, non-contiguous U.S. states (along with Alaska), it is the only sta ...

, which was stated during a deposition that took place on May 18, 2016.

References

External links

* * French hairdressers French people of Algerian descent French people of Vietnamese descent 1958 births Living people French businesspeople {{France-business-bio-stub