Jonas Bevacqua LRG

Jonas Bevacqua LRG
Jonas Bevacqua LRG. Jonas Bevacqua, co-founder of youth-oriented hip hop clothier LRG, found dead at 34. LOS ANGELES, Calif. - Jonas Bevacqua, who co-founded the popular street clothing brand LRG in 1999 and presided over its rapid rise as a major fashion force among young people, was found dead Tuesday. He was 34.Orange County sheriff's officials said Bevacqua's body was found in his Laguna Beach home.

"There were no obvious signs of the cause of death," sheriff's spokesman Jim Amormino told The Associated Press. He added that the county coroner would conduct an autopsy Wednesday.

Calls to LRG's headquarters in Irvine rang unanswered.

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.

By 2006, LRG had annual sales of $150 million and was named by Entrepreneur magazine as No. 5 on its list of that year's 500 fastest growing companies.

Among its popular clothing lines are Luxirie, which targets 18- to 30-year-old women, offering clothing with Western and military themes, and items such as crystal-covered jeans.

Initially a clothing company, LRG has since branched out to include sales of electronic devices, music and other items. It described itself as a "creative lifestyle" company that attempts to reflect its founders' interests, not only in fashion but also environmental causes and other activities.

"The company is also involved in the promotion of underground recording artists and sponsors a skateboarding team," according to its website.

In a 2009 interview with the Orange County Register, Bevacqua described a passionate but casual work ethic that he said drives LRG, whose headquarters includes a basketball court and skateboard half-bowl and ramp.

"No one is really a suit-and-tie-guy," he said of LRG's employees. "If anybody wears a suit, it's because he wants to, not because he has to."

Source:Yahoo