bebe stores are an American

Culture of the United States

The Culture of the United States is a Western culture originally influenced by European cultures. It has been developing since long before the United States became a country with its own unique social and cultural characteristics such as dialect, music, arts, social habits, cuisine, and folklore...

 clothing

Clothing

Clothing refers to any covering for the human body that is worn. The wearing of clothing is exclusively a human characteristic and is a feature of nearly all human societies...

 retail

Retail

Retail consists of the sale of physical goods or merchandise from a fixed location, such as a department store, boutique or kiosk, or by mail, in small or individual lots for direct consumption by the purchaser. Retailing may include subordinated services, such as delivery. Purchasers may be...

er founded in 1976. The name was inspired by, and is pronounced as in, the phrase "to be or not to be" from the play Hamlet

Hamlet

The Tragical History of Hamlet, Prince of Denmark, or more simply Hamlet, is a tragedy by William Shakespeare, believed to have been written between 1599 and 1601...

. Manny Mashouf

Manny Mashouf

Manny Mashouf is an Iranian-American businessman.He came to the USA in his teens and settled first in Chicago, then in San Francisco. There, he went to San Francisco State University and graduated with a political science degree in 1966. He is the founder and present chairman of bebe stores...

, who emigrated to the United States in the early 1970s

1970s

File:1970s decade montage.png|From left, clockwise: US President Richard Nixon doing the V for Victory sign after his resignation from office after the Watergate scandal in 1974; Refugees aboard a US naval boat after the Fall of Saigon, leading to the end of the Vietnam War in 1975; The 1973 oil...

, opened the first bebe store in San Francisco during a time when three categories dominated the women's wear market: junior, bridge and misses. Having discovered a demographic that was neither junior nor bridge, Manny aimed to break the mold by offering this under-represented population of stylish women distinctive and inspirational fashion bearing an unmistakable hint of sensuality.