LAGUNA BEACH – Jonas Bevacqua, co-founder and creative director of the Irvine-based clothing company LRG, was found dead in his home on Bern Drive in Laguna Beach on Monday morning, the Orange County Coroner's Office confirmed. He was 34. Entrepreneur magazine reported the company had sales of $5 million in 2002 and $150 million in 2006, earning it the No. 5 on its list of that year's 500 fastest growing companies. According to the company's Facebook page, Bevacqua and his business partner, Robert Wright, founded Lifted Research Group, known to patrons as LRG, with start-up capital raised in part from friends of Bevacqua's adoptive father. "I grew up in a pretty unique environment and was exposed to a lot of different things," he said in a 2009 interview with the Orange County Register. "I didn't feel there was a clothing company to bridge the gap between all these different things that we were into _ that spoke for that melting pot of what was going on. That's what LRG was all about." Bevacqua had dropped out of college and moved back home with his parents when he met Wright while working as a DJ at Southern California clubs. They started out with some sketches and ideas working out of Bevacqua's bedroom as he learned how to design and get clothes made. Bevacqua is survived by his mother, father, son, fiancee and seven siblings, according to the company's website.
– The co-founder of the hugely popular hip-hop and skateboarding clothing brand LRG has been found dead in his Laguna Beach home. Jonas Bevacqua was 34. There was no obvious cause of death, and an autopsy will be conducted, AP reports. LRG, which the designer founded when he was barely out of his teens, branched out from clothing into music and other items, which supported up-and-coming recording artists. Bevacqua, who grew up in a multi-racial California family, said he founded LRG because no other company was creating clothing that reflected his and co-founder Robert Wright's interest in surfing, skateboarding, and hip-hop. "I grew up in a pretty unique environment and was exposed to a lot of different things," Bevacqua told the Orange County Register in 2009. "I didn't feel there was a clothing company to bridge the gap among all these different things that we were into—that spoke for that melting pot of what was going on. That's what LRG was all about."