Team: Michael Lamendola

Every company has a “first” — the person who isn’t a founder but steps in when an idea needs to turn into a real operation. For Dirty Coast, that person was Michael Lamanola. She was there when the brand’s first hole-in-the-wall shop opened in 2006, a 220-square-foot “cave” on Magazine Street that barely fit a bathroom, much less a point-of-sale system.

Michael had just returned to New Orleans after a cross-country adventure when he met Patrick one late night at Le Bon Temps. Within days, he was helping keep the new shop afloat while Patrick scrambled to pick up shirts from printers and fulfill orders. Blake was still splitting time with his design studio, so Michael became the steady presence — the one behind the counter, helping customers, wrangling inventory, and jumping in wherever needed.

She was more than just the first hire; he was part organizer, part model wrangler, part shipping clerk, part event producer, and always the calm voice in the middle of the beautiful chaos. Michael helped guide Dirty Coast through its fragile early years — the tiny store, the Christmas crowds, the fashion shows, the BrooklynNOLA and SanFranNOLA parties — all while representing the spirit of the brand to locals and curious visitors alike.

Dirty Coast may have started with Blake’s ideas and Patrick’s hustle, but Michael’s presence gave the company its first employee heartbeat. She became proof that the brand wasn’t just a side project anymore — it was a business worth building.

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Michael, Patrick and Blake Talk About Early Days

Blake: So, how did you get started with Dirty Coast, Michael? What are your earliest memories?

Michael: I’d just been back maybe a month from my 2006 vegetable bus tour—I was gone a couple months. I was at Le Bon Temps, maybe the Soul Rebels, though I could be wrong. I met Patrick—maybe through Nikki or Hannah.

Patrick: Hannah or Nikki.

Michael: Yeah, one of those two. It was 2 a.m. and we went swimming somewhere around the corner. I told him I just got back, was working part-time at Saba Jewelry in the Quarter, and he said, “Man, I really need some help. My business partner and I just started this company.” I think I started the next day—or two days later.

Patrick: I think we had just opened the store.

Michael: Yeah.

Patrick: In that little cave of a store.

Michael: Our little cave.

Patrick: I couldn’t be picking up T-shirts in the Bywater or at Diego’s and keep the store open, so I had to have someone. I can’t remember if Susan was helping—maybe a little. Ani came later.

Michael: Yeah, it was me and you, kid.

Patrick: We were just making it.

Blake: That’s how much planning we put into these things—we didn’t even know how we were going to run the store with Patrick running around getting shirts.

Michael: Everything’s organic.

Patrick: We didn’t even have a point of sale—no way to check people out. The website was barely up.

Michael: We had a MySpace.

Patrick: We had MySpace, but I barely remember—maybe we used a pull-down menu and rang people up by putting items in a cart on the website, then checking out that way.

Blake: I think Ben built the POS into the backend of the website. It was all custom—we didn’t know any better.

Patrick: We had a screen with an old Mac Mini, ran it off a browser, clicked around the backend. Pretty bare-bones early days.

Blake: What are some of your first memories getting into the saddle, Michael?

Michael: A lot of people I knew—but hadn’t seen in years—came through. I grew up in Shreveport and New Mexico. My friend Seth came in one day. Also, Patrick knew my friend Misha’s husband; he called about a T-shirt for Misha. When I said my name—“Michael”—he asked my last name, then put Misha on the phone. She was a dear friend. Those kind of reconnections.

Patrick: What year did we start that store?

Michael: 2006—that’s when I started.

Blake: Fall 2006—after our first fashion show.

Patrick: So we started in early 2006 and by the end of the year we already had a store?

Blake: Pretty sure it was 2006—I’d have to check dates.

Michael: Definitely August/September-ish when I started in 2006—pretty soon after you had the store.

Patrick: A lot of people hadn’t come back to New Orleans yet. Folks were displaced but had heard about Dirty Coast and seen the stickers. At first we didn’t have many shirts; once we filled the store, people would come in to get back in the New Orleans spirit after being gone. We should look up the date—I can’t believe we had a store by year’s end, but I guess so.

Blake: I remember signing the lease—Nate’s old office—really inexpensive, a few hundred a month. Total hole in the wall—like opening a store in someone’s large bedroom.

Patrick: It barely had a bathroom—maybe ~220 square feet. Like 12 feet wide by 30 feet long.

Blake: I remember you calling me near Christmas that first year, Michael: “Get your ass here now.” We could only fit ~8 people at once; there were 12–15 inside. I came down, sat on a stool, and bounced the door.

Patrick: People would just pull shirts out and the store turned into a mess. We couldn’t find sizes; I was checking people out; Michael was helping; we’d switch off. In that tiny space it was… a lot.

Michael: Susan would walk in with cans of champagne toward the end of the day during Christmas.

Patrick: Our first Christmas ever.

Blake: Looking back at those early emails: “We sold 5 things. 10 things. 8 things. 2 things.” Through 2006 it kept ramping up, and by Christmas it really scaled.

Patrick: I remember doing like $10,000 in one day—maybe that first year?

Michael: I think so.

Patrick: And the shipping—lots of shipping. We all did it.

Michael: Luckily you lived around the corner.

Patrick: We were shipping at home and at the store, all hours.

Blake: Michael, you were my co-pilot/organizer for BrooklynNOLA and SanFranNOLA.

Blake: I’m trying to remember details…

Michael: BrooklynNOLA is fuzzier—maybe because it was first. I remember Jay Krier—who I’d met on my bus trip—picking us up from the airport in his green VW bus. The venue had “Public” in the name?

Patrick: I don’t think I went to BrooklynNOLA.

Michael: We had DJ Soul Sister and Rotary Downs.

Blake: Rotary Downs and Generationals.

Michael: Love that.

 

Hiking the Alps—we passed someone wearing Be a New Orleanian Wherever You Are. Wild.

Blake: Jambalaya Girl came up and cooked black-pot jambalaya. We also had some NYC DJs spin the next night at the Saint. SanFranNOLA was the same formula—sponsor friends to help cover the brass band and tickets. We did it twice: first had a few hundred folks; second time GNO, Inc. sponsored and we had ~800 people. We stopped because things got busy—Canary ramped up, Dirty Coast ramped up.

Patrick: How long did we have that small store?

Blake: In 2010 we moved across from Whole Foods.

Patrick: Flashbacks—I remember moving. Was it Easter morning?

Blake: We moved the entire store the night before Black Friday—in the dead of night.

Michael: Because of course.

Blake: Why not confuse your customers by moving across the street?

Patrick: We kept getting delayed getting into the new space; the small store couldn’t cut it. Delays, city approvals—came down to the wire.

Blake: We said, “Screw it. We have to be in there before Christmas.”

Patrick: Michael, what years did you work?

Michael: 2006 onward, with a hybrid of helping at Canary/Human Being and backend Dirty Coast as needed. I was still running social media after I moved to New Mexico in 2012—right before Mandy came on.

Patrick: And we had Ashlyn and Georgia.

Michael: I’ll never forget my first day working at your office on Thalia. I biked in—someone in a mental health crisis was wielding a metal pipe on the corner—I had to go around the block. Later, you left with David for lunch and Elvis had a seizure. No one told me about Elvis; I didn’t have Susan’s number. I did what I thought you’re supposed to do and prayed the dog would be okay—on my first day!

Patrick: Wild to think that was 20 years ago—the neighborhood was different.

Michael: My friends always came through as last-minute models when scheduled folks bailed. Fashion shows were amazing. Do you remember One Eyed Jacks—the video cut we have? My roommate at the time modeled, did a wild dance, then mimed lifting his leg to “pee” on everyone (he didn’t). That show was my favorite—most intense and fun.

Patrick: The highlight of our fashion shows.

Blake: Second or third time at One Eyed Jacks. Ellen did promo and wrangled models; we had a full prep team for hair and makeup—a real production.

Patrick: Lady Mikal helped Ellen; I was doing stuff; Michael you were doing stuff; Blake had his thing—lots of moving parts.

Michael: My ninjas showed up.

Patrick: What year did we do Eiffel Society on St. Charles?

Michael :Pretty one—that was the last one, I think.

Blake: Last one until many years later—post-COVID—when we did Tipitina’s with the current team. Good crowd; team pulled it together.

Michael: How big is the team now?

Blake: We have ~17–18 people now across two stores and the warehouse.

Michael: Wow.

Blake: It’s a really good team. A few have stuck around for years—grown a lot, much more complicated than the early days.

Patrick: We were just winging it then—no one to ask. Well, your wife…

Michael: She was there back then too.

Patrick: But we hadn’t established the legal you probably have now.

Michael: Do people still come ask for the Ignatius shirt? That’s one people always wanted when I was there.

Patrick: The number of people I turned down on that one—crazy.

Blake: The early years of cease-and-desists.

Michael, favorite designs? Do you still have any?

Michael: Some—but those were American Apparel days and my tiniest days, so many now belong to my dog Ziggy. I love “New Orleans—It Sticks to You.” That was one of the first. I still have “Save the Gulf Walrus” (short-run; special). “New Orleans: So Far Behind”—I had that too. I found a long-sleeve “Perp Boys.” If you don’t have any left, you should for posterity. Also, the Alexa Pulitzer Chandelier—popular and pretty on a tee.

Patrick: I liked NOLA Gothic.

Michael: I have the print that used to hang in the store.

Blake: It’s gotten harder—when I interviewed Chris Roy (employee/designer/manager), we talked about “evergreen” shirts. If it’s good enough to stay in rotation, it’s cubby-worthy. We’ve done 400+ designs—500+ including Screens for Good. You can only fit so many; something has to hit just right to be cubby-worthy.

Patrick: Do you still get new cubby-worthy shirts?

Blake: Occasionally—it’s rare. We have a core selection in cubbies; new releases on racks/tables seasonally—and when the city does something really stupid.

Michael: I love the collaborations; the Muses shirt changes yearly. And the Mardi Gras Tree Bling…

Blake: One of Patrick’s first ideas.

Patrick: I wanted a Mardi Gras bead on a crape myrtle. I wore it to a show and everyone wanted one—it was a hit.

Michael: Do y’all still have Chinese Bandits?

Blake: Not around anymore—we’re in a different world now.

Michael: That was my dad’s favorite.

Patrick: Oh—Chinese Bandits. Got it.

Blake: We got pushback on that and Jean Lafitte: Original Gangster—which I loved. The team pointed out the history—slave trader for a period. Fair point.

Patrick: Him and everybody else in New Orleans history…

Patrick: Lake/River/Uptown/Downtown?

Blake: Evergreen—cubby stuff.

Michael: I remember Purple Monkey doing most of our designs—Quentin or Mike would drop things on the fly.

Patrick: “We need this this afternoon.”

Michael: “We needed this two hours ago.” Also, meeting cool people—the cartoonist who did Flambeaux (the “flam” shirt), Keith—loved his work.

Blake: Since you moved away, does Dirty Coast still pop up?

Michael: All the time. One of the craziest: around 2009, I was visiting Hannah, hiking the Alps—we passed someone wearing Be a New Orleanian Wherever You Are. Wild. Back in Shreveport, folks knew I worked at Dirty Coast—thought it was cool. The other day I saw someone in a Superdome shirt at the grocery store.

Patrick: I ran into Jeff Parker—watched a Saints game with him. We laughed about Super Saint and the calendars.

Michael: So much fun. At Hotel Monteleone with Dr. John and the robot (Ray). He was Dr. John’s piano tuner. We were also shooting Whistle Monster outside—people were obsessed. Meanwhile I’m obsessed with Dr. John and he’s like, “Let’s go get pizza.”

Blake: You worked on a lot of photo shoots—assisting Zack—production stuff.

Michael: Zack, and Rob did some too.

Patrick: 2010?

Michael: The year we won the Super Bowl. We met for Good Morning America with the superfans, then breakfast. Great day.

Blake: First calendar was simple studio on white; I laid it out. We won the Super Bowl, then ramped it up the next year—Jeff had big ideas, pulled together scenes with Zack. It was Jeff, you, Zack—running around.

Patrick: I remember mailing all of them.

Michael: Me too.

Patrick: I’d just renovated the house—brought them all over and spent days mailing. Figuring out how to get addresses onto envelopes—so much POS background work.

Michael: Yep.

Patrick: It must be worked out now—print labels?

Blake: Seamless with Shopify now.

Patrick: Glad the FedEx copy/paste days are over. We were starting an online business before it was really a thing—few tools back then.

Blake: For the times, it worked great.

Patrick: We did good, folks.

Blake: Any other thoughts, Michael?

Michael: It came at a time I needed it and led me to a lot—still does. I’d lived in New Orleans since ’96, but post-Katrina was a rebirth for me. From Dirty Coast to Canary to Positive Vibrations Foundation—I’m still involved. I’m proud I was the first “employee” of Dirty Coast. I still support by sending gifts—friends in California are obsessed; my dad loved having all the shirts.

Patrick: I’m due for a new shirt.

Michael: Love you guys—it was a good time. We didn’t mention our team-bonding JamCruise trip you took us on.

Patrick: Was that January?

Blake: January 2008, I think.

Michael: Makes sense—’07 or ’08.

Patrick: We needed at least a year under our belt.

Michael: I have my badge Kathy made us.

Patrick: I found old pictures—need to send them to you, Blake.

Blake: Please do. Michael, you were integral—not just working the store, but helping with events, travel, photo shoots, Human Being, and production.

Michael: That production experience has helped me in the rest of my career—as did shipping.

Patrick: Text me your address—you’re a customer.

Patrick: Blake, you should do a little spread showing how small that original store was—measure it and juxtapose against today’s stores.

Blake: Good idea. If it was ~200 sq ft, the new uptown store is 1,600+—night and day.

Michael: Wow.

Patrick: Is there a new coffee shop there today?

Michael: Is there a store in Bay St. Louis?

Blake: No—that’s just y’all. We thought about it, but I don’t want to cross the streams—I don’t want to think about work when we go there.

Patrick: Speaking of, I’m going tomorrow—will you be there?

Blake: I need to go this week—pay for a golf cart battery—so maybe soon.

Patrick: Stay in touch.

Michael: Wow.

Patrick: You gotta come see both of our places.

Blake: We will.

Patrick: Alright—talk soon.

Blake: Michael, thank you so much.

Michael: See you on the flip side. Bye.