Photo: Marika Bortolami / Wikimedia Commons (CC BY 2.0)
Mimi Aiello is the co-founder and president of Frankies Bikinis, and the mother of its founder and creative director, Francesca Aiello. It was Mimi who, in 2012, encouraged her 17-year-old daughter to have custom swimsuits made — the suggestion that launched the brand from their Malibu home. The mother-daughter duo still runs the company together: Francesca leads design and creative, while Mimi oversees the business as president, a partnership behind one of swimwear's biggest success stories.
The Aiellos' family-run structure is often credited for the brand's unusually consistent creative identity.