California Apparel News

Not everything is doom and gloom in the economy.

Not Your Daughter’s Jeans, the relatively young Los Angeles apparel company known for its Tummy Tuck Jean, has sold a 50 percent interest in its company to a New York private-equity firm.

Falcon Head Capital is the company’s new partner. The Sage Group, a Los Angeles investment bank, and Thomas Weisel Partners, a New York investment bank, acted as financial advisors.

The deal calls for George Rudes, the company’s veteran apparel maker, to stay on with the company. George’s son, Ken Rudes, and his oldest daughter, Leslie Rudes, will retire. His youngest daughter, Lisa Rudes-Sandel, will stay on with her father.

The California Apparel News previously reported that a source familiar with the deal valued it at about $100 million. However, George Rudes said that figure is incorrect, but he declined to state the official dollar amount.

Rudes said he had entertained several offers to purchase the company recently, even as the economy maneuvered through a rough patch of bad news.

“We had been receiving a lot of inquiries [about selling], and we figured we would follow up,” Rudes said.

Rudes said the transaction to sell half the company took about three months to negotiate and was completed Sept. 19.Rapid growth

The company was started a mere five years ago, when Lisa Rudes-Sandel wandered into a high-end department store in Los Angeles to try on a pair of jeans and found that none of the fashionable styles fit. The jeans were cut too low and didn’t allow for a woman’s curves.

So, Lisa went back to her family’s decades-old women’s sportswear company, called St. Germain, and started tinkering. While she was searching for a bold new jean that fit the not-so-young crowd, she and her sister, Leslie, started the Not Your Daughter’s Jeans company.

Meanwhile, they pulled their father, then living in Boca Raton, Fla., out of retirement. Soon, St. Germain was sidelined so the family could concentrate on a new jeans line.

By 2005, the company brought out the Tummy Tuck Jean, which became an instant success and is carried by major department stores such as Nordstrom, Macy’s and Dillard’s. Retail price points for the pants and jeans vary from $98 to $138.

One of the secrets to the Tummy Tuck Jean is a more generous helping of Lycra. Instead of the normal 2 percent portion, the Tummy Tuck consists of 4 percent Lycra. A special denim weave helps the criss-cross front panel flatten the stomach and lift the derriegrave;re.

The company has grown rapidly every year. George Rudes said this year he expected revenues to approach $80 million. With a new partner, plans include expanding into other areas, including men’s. Industry insider

Last year, Rudes was named the Fashion Industries Guild’s “Man of the Year” at its annual fund-raising dinner for Cedars-Sinai Medical Center. The dinner raised $500,000 for the hospital’s Pediatric Acute Care Unit.

At the dinner, attendees learned that Rudes started his career in 1950 in Puerto Rico, where he sold fabric to women’s apparel makers. Rudes moved to California in 1978, and he and a partner started making jeans under the St. Germain label. The company later developed a line of popular jumpsuits, prompting George Rudes to become known as “King George of Jumperville.”

George Rudes said he didn’t have any immediate plans to leave Not Your Daughter’s Jeans. “I will stay as long as I can,” said the 79-year-old apparel maker. “I’m better at making jeans than playing golf.”