"Before the cheesy namesake clothing and accessories line that threatens to destroy his cred forever, there was the self-invented and slightly mad genius Kenny Howard– better known as Von Dutch. He was a real Renaissance man– legendary custom painter, artist, motorcycle mechanic, and a skilled metal worker who hand-crafted his own knives and guns. He had a strong aversion to money and felt it was detrimental to his art– which makes the clothing line even more of an ironic abomination."
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The Selvedge Yard
An incredible example of vintage Von Dutch handiwork-- his XAVW, 1965. 
A young Kenny Howard (Von Dutch) perfecting his pinstriping craft at Bud Ekins' shop, 1965.
2 comments:
Nice - yeah i thought there was someone called Von Dutch way before the clothing line. Made me feel angry when i saw the "Von Dutch" reps complain they were loosing money to chinese copy's........wankers you stole an iconic name! Why should you get any money at ALL!
I don't think anyone 'stole' the name. As I understand it, after Howard died in the early 90s the family sold the rights to his name to a fashion firm in Japan, who then sold it on to (I think) a Danish company headed up by a former boxer, and it was that company which turned it into such a huge global phenomenon. Of course, I'm sure the family got, relatively speaking, peanuts for that original sale, but then at that time the name Von Dutch meant nothing to anyone outside custom circles. And if it's only big business making money out of the name now, maybe it should have stayed that way.
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