Renaissance entrepreneur Gene Montesano broke in the jeans biz with Lucky Brand, expanded to casual wear, opened a slew of restaurants in Santa Barbara and started a charitable foundation, attracting Hollywood all along the way.
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FADE IN:
The year is 1972. The place is Miami Beach, years before the trendy South Beach explosion. The camera pans to two young men sitting under a dazzling marlin blue sky, the broad Atlantic stretching before them. Gene Montesano, a long-haired, 23-year-old Italian in worn blue jeans and a leather jacket he made himself, talks animatedly with Barry Perlman, his pal of two years, a 19-year-old Jewish kid whose long hair and bleached jeans also reflect the coolness of the period. They toss back tequila shots and talk about an idea they've got. And you can hear in Montesano's throaty voice--reminiscent of Frankie Pentangeli in The Godfather, the year's hottest movie--that they think they're on to something that could be very big.
Though it sounds like a story of two streetwise young men headed for trouble, these two risk-takers end up making millions, amass a loyal fan base that includes some of the biggest names in the entertainment industry and, through their generosity, become heroes to a steady stream of physically challenged kids.
What Montesano and Perlman had in mind was to open a jeans store on Sunset Drive in South Miami with another buddy. They called it Four Way Street and hoped that Montesano's original leather and appliqué items and their denim jeans--which they bought pre-made, bleached after-hours at a friend's father's Laundromat and stitched and seamed to look original--would not only be cool but would help them meet girls.
It worked well for three years until Montesano heeded the call of the West Coast, leaving his best buddy in Florida to open a couple more stores on his own. Following a brief stint at Guess, Montesano launched Bongo, a hot jeans brand in the '80s. In 1991, after 10 years on the corporate track, Montesano bailed out on Bongo, convinced Perlman to join him in Los Angeles and the two friends started Lucky Brand.
Montesano created much of the hip Lucky Brand artwork and designed a jeans collection that paid homage to the vintage look, spirit and quality of America in the '50s, but with a decidedly contemporary appeal. The collection grew from jeans to other hot clothing items, and over the ensuing years, Lucky Brand's ironic twist on fashion and promotion caught the attention of a very loyal audience, many of whom were in the public eye themselves.
Though Montesano stresses, "we don't chase celebrities; we appreciate their business and respect their privacy," plenty of Hollywood's shiniest have gotten Lucky on their own. Like Britney Spears, who recently popped into their Santa Monica store and emerged all dressed in Lucky Brand, much to the delight of a throng of paparazzi who had followed her there. John Travolta and Kelly Preston's publicists were called first to see if it was OK to tell the press that they had been shopping at another one of the stores. And, after hearing that Renee Zellweger loved Lucky Brand, Montesano sent her some things--without ever telling the press.
Sometimes that privacy thing really pays off, like when Montesano and Perlman got into a conversation about guitars with James Taylor while their flight was delayed. Then one day Taylor showed up at one of the stores, dished with the guys about work on his new CD and, much to Montesano's surprise, "wore a pair of our jeans on the cover and thanked Virgil's Barbeque and Lucky Brand on the back of the CD."
In 1996 Montesano made another move, escaping the wild side of the Hollywood Hills for the beauty of Montecito, a well-heeled suburb of Santa Barbara. "I had children and I figured if I can do this and I don't, it's not good for my karma." Obviously it's been very good for his karma. Since making the move, 85 percent of Lucky Brand has been acquired by Liz Claiborne, and within the last year he and his partner have formed the Red Tiger Holding Co., an umbrella organization for their latest ventures: Capital Tailors (a high-end tailored denim collection worn by Cameron Diaz, Katie Holmes and Charlize Theron); Ever (a high-end men's surfer-inspired line) and Mijo (a women's collection from former Mademoiselle editor Michelle Jonas).
"And then Barry and I started what we hope to be a cult jean brand called Jean Shop," says Montesano in his usual offhand manner. "The first store opened recently on 14th Street in NYC and sells $240 jeans and leather wear. It looks like an adult bookstore with a small white neon sign that says 'Jean Shop' and another one that flashes 'Open' or 'Closed.' And it's kinda cool, which is important because making a lot of money was never the primary issue with Barry and me. It was all about fun and being creative and doing something different. And, you know, it still is."
After success as a restaurateur with Farfalle in L.A., Aspen and Miami, you'd think his plate was full enough, but in the past few years, he's become the kingpin on the restaurant scene in the Santa Barbara area. Lucky's, his hip Montecito eatery, is the hottest ticket in town. "Up here, it's like taking someone to the Ivy on Robertson. If you are looking to see someone here, I would think that Lucky's would be the only place in town. But it's relaxed and not pretentious. It's a fun place and it's kinda like everyone's club house." And that club includes locals like Michael Keaton, Dennis Miller, Rob Lowe, Ivan Reitman, Kirk Douglas, Oprah Winfrey and repeat visitors like Gwyneth Paltrow, Tom Hanks and Mike Myers.
"There are only 25 tables and the walls are lined with all those old Hollywood pictures, but I didn't want the place to just be about Hollywood. I wanted it to be everybody's place. So we did a thing that's sort of one from the heart, where if you came in and had a nice bottle of wine on some special occasion, we'd take off the label, you'd sign it, we'd frame it and put it up on the wall."
It works for Carol Burnett, whose wine label reads, "Here's to our favorite table, at our favorite restaurant with our favorite people. Love, Carol and Brian [Miller, her husband]."
In addition to Lucky's, Montesano's other restaurants include Tre Lune, Ca' Dario, Bucatini, Enoteca Primo, D'Angelo, Joe's Cafe and the soon-to-open Cafe Luck. "What can I say? I'm Italian and we Italians like to feed people. Although when I think about it, opening nine restaurants in a town with less than 125,000 people makes me wonder if I'm crazy."
Yeah, crazy like a fox, and a generous one at that. Having established the Lucky Brand Foundation seven years ago, Montesano and his partner have given millions of dollars to disadvantaged and disabled children's causes. "We've been very lucky, my partner and I, personally and in business. Our kids are healthy and we have great lives. When I saw the pain reflected in the eyes of parents whose kids had Down syndrome, I decided that the first thing we would raise money for was the Association for Children with Down Syndrome."
To help support the over 20 charitable organizations that the Lucky Brand Foundation funds directly, they host a blowout party once a year featuring musical talent like Jackson Browne, Bonnie Raitt and other headliners. The next one is being held on November 12 in Beverly Hills.
So what keeps Montesano going and keeps him inspired? "Everything. I live in a visual world. Barry is much more about organization; I'm still a guy who doesn't do a business plan. We work so well together. He's the present. I'm the future. I have to be a treetop flyer, because if you are passionate about something you soar."
FADE OUT. Not likely.
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