Broughton Quarterly - Spring 2009 - (Page 33) LUCKY GOLD BY MATT KETTMANN A modern King Midas, Santa Barbara’s Gene Montesano has made a habit of turning everything he touches to gold, from Lucky Brand Jeans to local restaurants and a foundation that raises millions for disabled children. I T’S THE MIDDLE OF THE NIGHT IN MIAMI AND, inside an otherwise lifeless Laundromat, two men are frantically stuffing quarters and dumping bleach into the washing machines while countless pairs of blue jeans swirl round ‘n’ round, their customary color bleeding away on every spin cycle. If you’d witnessed this bizarre scene when it happened in the early 1970s, you might have assumed a few things—revenge on a former fling, perhaps, or simply run-of-the-mill insanity—but you probably never would have guessed the truth: that these two visionaries were plotting the future of fashion. Just a few years later, bleached, acid-washed, rhinestone-studded jeans would be all the rage from Long Beach to Long Island. And America would have Gene Montesano and his best buddy, Barry Perlman, to thank. For Montesano, who went on to create Bongo Jeans in the 1980s before reuniting with Perlman to launch Lucky Brand Jeans in 1990, fashion was just the first course on a menu of many professional accomplishments, and today, everything from restaurants and film festivals to fundraisers and disabled children have enjoyed his golden touch. He currently owns six restaurants in Santa Barbara and doles out more than $600,000 a year to help sick kids through his Lucky Brand Foundation. At 59 years old, Montesano is refreshingly comfortable in his own skin, retaining the boyish charm and youthful vigor of someone half his age. Recently, while enjoying the winter sunshine in the pine-studded backyard of his Montecito home, the proud but jean-wearingly humble Montesano summed up his life’s work by saying,“I’ve never left anything the way I found it.” broughtonQuarterly.com 33 http://www.BroughtonQuarterly.com
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