‘The Curse of Von Dutch’ — how the model grew to become ‘Von Douche’

What occurs when a aggressive surfer-turned-small time gangster, a convicted drug supplier and a world martial arts champion launch a vogue line?

It turns into the most important model on this planet.

No label captured early 2000s fashion fairly like Von Dutch — an off-the-cuff line of denim, T-shirts, jackets and trucker hats favored by the period’s brightest stars, akin to Paris Hilton, Dennis Rodman, Britney Spears and Jay-Z. At a second when the head of fashion was a midriff-baring tank prime paired with scandalously low-slung denims, the scrawled Von Dutch emblem was ubiquitous, exhibiting up all over the place from rowdy school campuses to the pink carpet. 

However as a brand new docuseries reveals, overexposure and a feud over the way forward for the model would in the end kneecap Von Dutch’s development and condemn the model to early 2000s infamy.

“At its most aspirational, it was Levi’s,” Andrew Renzi, director of Hulu’s “The Curse of Von Dutch,” out Thursday, advised The Put up. He mentioned Von Dutch’s unique ethos was all about “James Dean [and] scorching rod tradition,” with the originators getting down to create “an actual, true American heritage model, one thing that basically represented Americana.”

To do that, California-based duo Michael Cassel (a self-described “outlaw” who served 4 years in San Quentin after a cocaine bust) and Bobby Vaughn (a surfer and mannequin, who narrowly evaded arrest after his involvement in a 1993 capturing) appeared to the legacy of the deceased artist and mechanic Kenny Howard, a ok a “Von Dutch.” Howard pioneered the modern artwork of pinstriping — customizing automobiles and bikes with skinny, ornamental strains — and created a lot of memorable drawings, together with a flying eyeball with wings that Cassel and Vaughn featured of their nascent clothes line’s iconography.

Howard’s daughters accredited the license, and by the late Nineties, Von Dutch had a small however loyal following amongst rebels and outcasts. “Children undergo a stage the place they like punk rock, they like rebellious issues, and ‘f–ok that’ anarchy, proper? He was that in his artwork, he was that in his actions, he was utterly towards the grain,” Cassel says of Howard’s attraction.

Sadly, Cassel’s legal file made it nearly not possible for the road to develop, as a result of nobody would lend him cash. By the 12 months 2000, he was on the hunt for a non-public investor.  

He discovered one in Tonny Sorensen, a 6-foot-6 Danish former Olympian and Taekwondo champion who had initially come to Los Angeles to pursue a profession as an motion star. At first, Sorensen — who took 51% management of the model with a million-dollar funding — and Cassel shared an analogous imaginative and prescient for Von Dutch (“scorching rods and rolled up T-shirts and actually exhausting denim,” mentioned Renzi). However as time handed and Sorensen discovered himself dropping cash, he received determined. He introduced in a French designer named Christian Audigier to spice up gross sales. 

Audigier — who would ultimately launch a line of infamous tattoo-inspired T-shirts known as Ed Hardy — had a wholly completely different imaginative and prescient for Von Dutch. “It was a lot extra flamboyant,” Renzi mentioned. “It was louder, as a result of Christian’s concept of America was Michael Jackson. Christian was obsessive about Michael Jackson, obsessive about the actually loud aptitude of America.”

Quickly, Audigier’s flashy designs — from sequin baseball caps to rhinestone tees to patent-leather bowling baggage — took off.

Tommy Lee wore Von Dutch on his 2000 episode of “MTV Cribs” (a first-rate placement that Vaughn organized, including within the movie that Sorensen rewarded him by tricking him into signing over his rights to the corporate). Audigier employed Tracey Mills, brother of NBA star Chris Mills, to get items on his celeb pals, akin to Brandy and Usher. 

Von Dutch had a coverage of by no means charging celebrities for something they picked out on the shops.

As soon as, Whitney Houston and her entourage got here in and picked up considered one of each single merchandise. Within the collection, Sorenson says a gross sales clerk got here to test with him that it wasn’t an excessive amount of. 

As he remembers it, “I mentioned to them, ‘Have you ever ever heard her voice? Have you ever ever heard her sing? Do you bear in mind ‘The Bodyguard?’ Like, give her 30 baggage, as a result of she’s the very best singer I’ve ever heard in my life and I nonetheless get goosebumps.’”

However no one championed the model like Paris Hilton, who on the time was selling her tongue-in-cheek 2003 actuality present “The Easy Life” along with her greatest pal Nicole Richie.

“It was free, it was playful, it was cute, it was iconic,” Hilton mentioned of Von Dutch within the collection. Audigier, she says, gave her and Richie “no matter we wished … That was like, our uniform for the present.”

By 2003, Von Dutch was raking in hundreds of thousands of {dollars} every month, with the doc suggesting it was probably the most counterfeited emblem after Louis Vuitton. Celebrities had been “the ‘X’ issue for them,” Renzi mentioned. “They had been getting influencers earlier than that was a factor … The distinction then is that magazines would come out as soon as per week or as soon as a month, and so it actually did create a craziness round this model, as a result of each month, Us Weekly or no matter would come out and everybody can be in a Von Dutch hat within the journal.”

For Vaughn and Cassel, the success was not so candy. 

In 2002, Cassel misplaced the wrestle for artistic management and he was compelled out, unable to lift the cash to purchase out Sorensen. He watched, helpless and broke, because the model he beloved light away.

“They took this factor that I created, my child, and so they prostituted it,” Cassel says on the finish of Episode 2.

In the end, even Sorensen got here to query Audigier’s judgment as he churned out an increasing number of Von Dutch merchandise — with objects for teenagers and pets showing in shops — to the purpose that by 2004, the once-hot label got here to be identified, disparagingly, as “Von Douche.”

“Whenever you see canine sporting Von Dutch, it’s simply not cool anymore,” mentioned Renzi. 

Sorensen ultimately offered his stake, and Audigier jumped ship in 2007. (He died in 2015.) “They sort of exhausted themselves,” Renzi mentioned. “They made a bunch of cash and it was a profitable firm, however it was on the expense of longevity.”