Von Dutch the artist vs. The bad clothing line... Discuss

There seems to be alot of opinions on the tiki tow truck i posted. None of wich are bad ones, I dont own any Von Dutch clothing and never will. Thats just me. I did find a interesting article about how kids wearing the over-priced crap dont even know who the man was,

http://www.ocweekly.com/ink/04/18/cover-douglas.php

Being a car guy all my life. I have owned and built lots of cars. I am a very traditional person when it comes to stuff I build or own. I stay period correct on hot rods or customs. I am appaled they way Von Dutchs name has been prostituted. Everytime I see a kid wearing the stuff I stop them and ask them who Von Dutch is. I have never got a correct answer yet. There are some guys on the HAMB site that have cards they hand out to those people that says Kenneth Howard hates you. That pretty much sums it up for me. I think the little tow truck thing is cool but I refuse to help support guys profiting off of someone elses life.

Thanks Rodeo. Good read.

On 2005-02-22 17:11, tikicar wrote:
Being a car guy all my life. I have owned and built lots of cars. I am a very traditional person when it comes to stuff I build or own. I stay period correct on hot rods or customs. I am appaled they way Von Dutchs name has been prostituted. Everytime I see a kid wearing the stuff I stop them and ask them who Von Dutch is. I have never got a correct answer yet. There are some guys on the HAMB site that have cards they hand out to those people that says Kenneth Howard hates you. That pretty much sums it up for me. I think the little tow truck thing is cool but I refuse to help support guys profiting off of someone elses life.

Wonderful! I'm with you, chief, but I apply it more to Tiki than cars. It's grim to see a once proud little company shitting on the reason for it's existance. If Tiki goes 'Von Dutch', I'll be handing out cards by the hundreds.

Trader Woody

I am over trendy wankers wearing kustom styled clothing. Britney Spears and co. probably just wear whatever their marketing person tells them.

Gwen Stafani (No Doubt lead singer) appears to be the exception to the rule as she is always wearing old style threads, and doesn't come across as wanting to a be a trendy wanker (again, this could just be marketing, what the hell would i know).

having said this, who am I to criticise? I have a basic mechanical knowledge, but I am a way way long off putting together a home built rod or kustom in the shed. Just because I can tell the difference between lakes pipes and zoomie headers does that mean I can wear kustom clothing?

I dont wear von dutch clothing because of its popularity amongst 'trendies' (and the bloody price). Having said that, my fave shirts are my mooneyes shirt and coop devil mechanic style shirt - both kustom culture stuff. I wear these because I love em and no-one has any idea what they are.

I am going to spray up some von dutch style shirts for my girl though. One concept will have the von dutch logo on a plain coloured shirt, with "has been sold out" at an angle just under the logo in bright red - love the double meaning. The other one involves the von dutch logo, and the following text underneath:
Artist
Legend
Alcoholic
I am hoping they cause some double takes on the street.

There is a guy who frequents my local car hangout who would be in his 40s (ish). He wears his hair greased back, black jeans, and a von dutch shirt all the time. i can just imagine some twerp going "look at that old guy trying to be cool"

Yeah, he was probably wearing that shirt before you were born.

Jeez hes got a tough hot rod...

I just want to point out that I live in Philly, and I have berated people on the street who are of African-American descent, not-so-politely informing them that their sad need to wear whatever shit celebs are wearing this week has brought them to brandishing the name of a rasicist, and someone who, if they saw his name on their person, would probably shoot them on the spot. Now, if you think I'm a racist, just wait. Skinny, obnoxious indy kids that I see wearing it, get one chance. "So, who is Von Dutch?" Answer wrong, and they get a fury of rude comments from me. IT's really fun for my friends to watch me do this in bars.

Lets face it , from all I have read Dutch may have not been a role model or even a nice guy. But looking at his art and not the man, I feel there are a select few on the same level.
Hewey, good luck with your shirts , cant wait to see them.

Dutch as an artist was amazing. How he ran his life really doesn't matter to me. Just because I like an actor, artist, musician etc's. work. I really don't care what they are like in real life because I won't ever meet them. Some of the most talented people are disturbed in one way or another. I just don't like people profiting from someone elses work. Thats just me. I met Ed Roth years ago and he was a really cool guy. Same can be said about Rod Powell another amazing Striper and customizer. I have met Barris a few times. That guy gives you a different answer everytime you ask him the same question. He did alot for Hot Rods & Customs but man that guy is full of BS. He takes credit for alot of other peoples work. I have heard him several times say he built the monkey mobile. Dean Jefferies built that car. He couldn't afford to buy it back from the studio when the show was cancelled. Barris had the $$$ and has been showing it as one of his creations ever since. Thats just wrong.

I went to the markets and every clothing store had rip-off von dutch clothing. ( 3 shirts for $10! - rrp. $70ish for a genuine)

What if shag became the new Von Dutch?

http://www.tikicentral.com/viewtopic.php?topic=13384&forum=1&0

I've met the man, Von Dutch, as my ex's father (Paul) was a gearhead and built many engines for Roth and Von Dutch in the 60's & 70's. During Von Dutch's last years he moved in with his grandaughter who lived less than 20 minutes form our house. Whenever Paul had a BBQ, Von Dutch was present. I remember him as being very quiet, he was very shy and the exact definition of the crazy artist. He was usually drunk but never harmed anyone or made a nuisance of himself. He was always carving something and muttering to himself. I never saw him wear jeans, he wore dickies style slacks or coveralls. I never saw him in a t-shirt with a pin-up girl. I never heard a racial slur, but he often slurred from the beer. He was flat busted, he gave more of his things away than he sold them. At the time I knew him he resented pinstriping as people wanted him to pinstripe his cars for clout, not for art. He often charged insane amounts to people he didn't like to disuade them but it only made it more desirable. I know turbogod mentioned in the other thread the Kustom Kulture art show of '93. They displayed pieces that he had striped and articles he had carved (mostly knives & gun handles). One piece was an actual dashboard that he had striped with a magnifying glass in front of it. From the naked eye it seemed like a normal stripe on the dash, but when you looked through the magnifying glass it read "This guy is a f#%king asshole." He painted with a single hair such fine lines that under normal circumstances it appeared as a solid line. I'm sure Robert Williams story was accurate, I just never witnessed any outbursts. One day he just up and left without telling anyone, it was more than a year later that we found out he'd moved to Ojai in a trailer on some property. A little factoid: to make some cash he gold leafed and striped the antique fire trucks for the cities of Santa Ynez and Templeton.

I think Dutch would laugh his ass off about the whole situation. If you read up, he would do work under the name J.L. Bachs. Joe Lunch Box. He didn't paint for the dough, it kept him sane(more or less). He did what he loved to do, and is noted for doing less than ethical things to people whom he saw as posers and fakes. I am sure he would be disdained by the attention, but he would love to see some clueless piece of silver spoon, never worked for anything in their life, Mummy and Daddums sent me to private school trash paying ridiculous amount of scratch to buy something they had no clue what it actually was about. Just my thoughts, with out the old codger here...we will never know.

Somewhat along the same (fashion) line;

A new collection of upscale clothing inspired by Kurt Cobain

http://men.style.com/fashion/collections/S2007MEN/review/NNMEN/?mbid=sfsu

One thing I find unusual about teh current Von Dutch craze is that all teh eople wearing Von Dutch seem to have no idea that although being an incerdible artist who can be credited for being teh birth of pinstriping, he was also a horrible racist. I mean he was really foul. People walk around wearing Von Dutch T-shirts and caps and have no idea of how small minded Von Dutch was. The man was a throwback to old south days. I mean he was really just straight up foul.

Anyways,

drunk now

g'night

Von Dutch would've been rightly bewildered that a marketing company could turn his name into a cash cow. As discussed earlier, Von Dutch wasn't the kind of person you wanted to know since he was usually loaded and unkempt. Most assumed he was a mentally ill homeless dude. Because I sell vintage hot rod parts (since the 1960's), he was a pesty looker who killed business. Eventually, he could only look at my stuff if Ed Roth brought him over. Ed was enough of a one-man-circus that other customers would ignore VD. Unfortunately, VD's problems led to the decline of the skills that made him famous. It took on a note of tragedy when high-end rods came into vogue. VD's skills were no longer up to snuff and the builders of these machines wanted nothing but the best. Hence, the last couple decades of VD's life were spent on the sidelines watching others decorating the fanciest rods of the day. The post-mortem screeching about his politics is just stupid. Since when are homeless drunks expected to be politically enlightened? He would've been just as mystified that he made an appearance in a forum devoted to tiki worship. In his world, a Mai Tai is nothing but a fag drink for those without the balls to drink their liquor straight.