Sunlit California denim workshop with rows of vintage sewing machines and bolts of raw indigo denim.

Established in California

Buy Less.
Choose Well.

Timeless clothing shaped by decades of experience and made with intention in California.

Gene Montesano and Barry Perlman photographed in their California workshop.

01 / The Founders

A lifetime
spent making clothes.

Gene Montesano and Barry Perlman helped shape the landscape of American denim once before. After Lucky Brand, they returned to something smaller and more particular — specialized production, closer control, garments they'd stand behind for a lifetime.

Civilianaire is the result: enduring apparel made with the patience of people who have already built at scale, and now build with intention.

Read our story

A manifesto

The best clothing
is not disposable.

We believe in owning fewer things, choosing them carefully, wearing them often, and allowing them to become part of a life.

The Collections

Four worlds, one workshop.

Est. 2009 — Ongoing

The core collection

Civilianaire

Timeless denim, shirting, tees, outerwear, and everyday essentials — built to be worn and worn again.

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Optimism & utility

Peace Store

Military references, patches and symbols. A quiet insistence on hope, cut from surplus and honest cloth.

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Softer silhouettes

Love Sweet Love

Colour, comfort, and expressive graphics. Warm, generous, unafraid of affection.

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California shirt makers

Tropicali

Print-rich shirting with Hawaiian, Japanese, and vintage references. California, at ease.

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Macro photograph of Japanese selvage denim showing the red-line self-finished edge.

Technical Spec / 04

Decades in denim.

Our denim is woven on vintage shuttle looms — self-finished at the edge, slow to produce, and made to record a life. Raw, rinsed, or washed, it is honest cloth.

Weight: 14.5 oz Raw
Origin: Kuroki Mills, Japan
Construction: Chainstitched Hem
Cut & Sewn: Los Angeles, CA

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Provenance

Made close.
Made carefully.

Every Civilianaire garment is cut and sewn in Los Angeles — small runs, specialized hands, and the distance between the design table and the sewing machine measured in feet, not miles.

Local production is not a slogan for us. It's a working relationship with pattern makers, dyers, and finishers we've known for decades. Fabrics are inspected. Fits are developed on real bodies. Nothing leaves the workshop we wouldn't wear.