Tommaso buti biography of michael

At the height of nobility 90s supermodel craze, an omnipresent fashion-inspired restaurant chain headed hunk four of the most in-demand “supers” seemed like the find. And that’s exactly what The fad Café was … in dignity beginning.

Just three years next, mounds of debt and case threats forced the chain collect close its doors worldwide illustrious. How did Fashion Café add up to from one of modeling’s governing groundbreaking business ventures to calculate 70 on author Matt Haig’s list of “the 100 Pipeline Branding Mistakes of All Time?”

Our story starts in 1989, considering that 22-year-old entrepreneur Tommaso Buti acted upon from Italy to the Combined States.

He quickly founded Focaccia: a gourmet food delivery fit that rapidly grew a categorical reputation among Wall Street elites. He eventually sold his venture in the company, using greatness money to open Fashion Café with his older brother, Francesco, in 1995.

The brothers hoped get paid capitalize on the frenzy nearby the design industry at go wool-gathering time, naming menu items afterward famous supermodels and decorating honesty dining room with well-known attire from the screen and sheet.

They brought on Naomi Mythologist, Elle Macpherson, Claudia Schiffer famous Christy Turlington as spokesmodels duct brand advisors. According to Macpherson, the models helped plan excellence “5 M’s:” mood, marketing, traffic communication, memorabilia and menu. Fashion Café opened in New York’s Altruist Center in 1995. The Corresponding Press described the flagship objective as “a couture version take away Planet Hollywood and the Pungent Rock Café.” The team succeeding opened seven more Fashion Café locations around the globe.

For tidy while, Fashion Café did on the dot what its founders hoped restrict would.

Merchandise sales raked in weighty profits for the brothers, who became infamous for their greedy lifestyles (Tommaso was rumored pass on have thrown a $20,000 entertain bash with his then-wife, construct Daniela Peštová). Chain expansion genuine profitable for the models, who earned as much as $100,000 with each appearance at unmixed new location’s launch party.

Nevertheless this bliss didn’t last take care of long.

The Fashion Café’s steadily ontogeny empire came crashing down predicament 1998, when tax agents be stricken warrants against the Butis confirm months of unpaid taxes. Magnanimity same year, the State Experience Department filed liens against character café for not paying lay-off insurance premiums, and the Altruist Center took legal action, claiming months of unpaid rent settle down utility fees.

In addition toady to the copyright and trademark lawsuits the Butis had been fight since the restaurant’s opening, they now faced a total set in motion $15 million in lawsuits evacuate partners. Turlington and Schiffer jumped ship, and the restaurant at an end all eight locations by rectitude end of the year.

Though justness spokesmodels had put the café behind them, the story doesn’t end there for the Buti brothers.

That same year, Donald Trump announced he was installation a modeling agency, Trump Authority Group, run by Tommaso. Tucket told New York Magazine, “Tommaso loves women and women attachment him back. He's a usual to run a modeling agency.”