FRAME

FRAME was founded in 2012 by Erik Torstensson and Jens Grede, two Swedes who had built careers in fashion media and consulting before deciding to make the product they kept writing about. The brand started with denim, which was already a mature and crowded category, and differentiated by going to the Los Angeles production facilities that had defined premium denim in the 2000s and applying a specific California-relaxed aesthetic that was different from the Italian luxury denim and the New York fashion-forward denim that dominated the market. The jeans were cut slightly higher in the rise than the low-rise that had been standard, with a leg opening that varied from slim to wide depending on the season’s direction, in a silhouette that owed something to the Levi’s jeans the founders associated with California style but produced in significantly better fabric and construction.

The Georgetown store at 3105 M Street carries the denim alongside the ready-to-wear collection that FRAME has built since the initial denim success. The leather category is notable: FRAME has been among the brands that moved leather from a category occasional piece to a wardrobe staple, with leather trousers, blazers, and tops that work in the same casual-to-polished range as the denim. The knitwear covers the essential cashmere and wool pieces, and the tailoring provides the structured pieces that extend a FRAME wardrobe into the business context.

The price positioning reflects the premium quality claim. Jeans run in the $200-$350 range, leather pieces above that, knitwear at the cashmere price point. The customer the brand addresses has moved past the fast fashion market and wants something that lasts and holds its shape and position in the wardrobe across seasons. The fabric and construction at FRAME support this claim better than many brands at similar price points, though the customer who wants to verify this will find the M Street store the practical place to assess the product before committing to the investment.

The brand’s celebrity following, which includes a list of names whose wardrobes influence the fashion press, has given FRAME consistent editorial visibility since the brand’s founding. This visibility has made the brand recognizable to the Georgetown customer who follows fashion media, which is a different customer from the one who discovers the store by walking past the M Street storefront.

Hours run from 10am Monday through Saturday and 11am Sunday, with Friday and Saturday extending to 8pm. The online store at frame-store.com carries the full collection. The Georgetown store is accessible from the Georgetown Circulator and from the M Street parking garages on the surrounding blocks. The denim that FRAME makes in its premium categories is produced in Los Angeles at the same facilities that were responsible for the premium denim wave of the 2000s, which gives the fabric and wash quality the regional production identity that the brand’s California aesthetic references. For customers who want to understand what distinguishes FRAME denim from the mid-market denim at comparable prices, the M Street store provides the hands-on comparison that online photography cannot deliver. The Georgetown store is open from 10am Monday through Saturday and 11am Sunday.