Gerard Guez, founder of Sunrise Brands, received the Spirit of Life award from the City of Hope at a Nov. 20 gala at Soho House.

Guez’s family, friends and colleagues turned out to celebrate the evening, which raised more than $1 million for the medical research center.

Past City of Hope galas have been held at the Beverly Wilshire hotel in Beverly Hills. The new location allowed guests to roam around the venue—including out onto the tree-filled patio—and take in the panoramic views of Los Angeles.

There was a silent auction featuring items such as Guess and CC Skye handbags, tickets to see Ellen DeGeneres’ television show, a $1,000 William Rast gift certificate, a guitar signed by Richie Sambora, and a basketball signed by Chick Hearn, Stu Lantz and Tex Winter.

Among the guests were several past Spirit of Life award recipients, including Jeff Rudes, Mitch Cohen, Dave Reza, Sunnie Kim, Mark Wertz and Jeff Kapor.

The evening marked a farewell to longtime City of Hope executive Csynthia Savage, who is retiring from the organization at the end of the year. Kapor called her a “true asset” to City of Hope. “Under her leadership our industry group has grown to be one of the most successful industry chapters,” he said.

Before Guez received his award, two of his eight siblings addressed the crowd—providing insight into the longtime apparel-industry executive.

“He has an unlimited aptitude for happiness. He is never cynical or bitter,” said brother Hubert Guez, chief executive office of Nervous Tattoo. “His ears are always open, and he’s avid to learn new things. Gerard is a man of character and vision. Gerard is the guy you want in your corner.”

Brother Yves Guez told how the eldest Guez brother, Paul, “led [the family] out of Tunisia, out of France to the U.S.,” and they became partners in Paul Guez’s Sasson jeans business.

Yves Guez offered his “humble, heartfelt appreciation of my brother Gerard” and praised his brother’s success in the place where “Seventh Avenue and Hollywood Boulevard intersect.”

“It would be tempting to call him an autodidactic success in a sea of rags-to-riches stories,” he said. “We are here tonight to honor a captain of industry who is a high school dropout. He has fashioned his world and populated it exactly

as he imagined it.”

Business partner Todd Kay elaborated on his 32-year history with Gerard Guez. “This is going to be long,” he said. “I’m going big tonight.”

Kay relayed his response when asked by Gerard Guez’s assistant, Rachael Stevens, to speak at the gala. “I politely told her, ‘I’m not feeling it. I’m going to drop an F-bomb. My wife is going to be embarrassed. Bankers will be there.’ A couple of days later, I got the call [from Gerard Guez].”

Kay met Gerard Guez in 1979 when he was working as a salesman for a denim line and Guez recruited him at a trade show to work for Sasson. “Sasson jeans, 1979—the company is totally on fire,” Kay said. “This is the inventor of designer jeans. He was the first to do licensing. For the next four to five years, we built a $400 million company. We had nothing but fun. In 1985–’86—that’s right when we f*cked it up.”

Kay and Guez parted ways—but not for long. Guez set up business in Hong Kong and convinced Kay to join him.

“I go to Hong Kong, and here we go, all over again,” Kay said. “We built a beautiful company called Tarrant Apparel Group.”

The company eventually went public and grew to a $1 billion market cap, Kay said. “As you all know we managed to f*ck that one up, too.”
 
Guez took Tarrant Apparel private, renaming it Sunrise Brands and bringing Kay back into the fold.

“Today we have our own city of hope, Sunrise Brands,” Kay said. “Everyday it’s not about the money, it’s about pride—it’s never about ego. None of this could have been possible without my transformer—because that’s what he is.”

By the time Gerard Guez got to the podium, he quipped, “Am I up? You now know more about my life than I care to remember.”

He thanked the guests—many of whom came from Montreal, Hong Kong and New York—including mentioning several finance executives from Rosenthal & Rosenthal. “They want to know where their money is,” he joked.

Guez offered his thanks to City of Hope—“It’s a privilege to have been honored”—and to his wife, Jackie, and his children. Then he encouraged the guests to consider others who are not as fortunate.

“I’ve

been doing this for 40 years,” he said. “I though it would be a good time to say, ‘Whoa, slow down.’ This is the holidays, and we should try to think of all the people who have not been as lucky as we have been.”—Alison A. Nieder