Christian Audigier & Ed Hardy

Christian Audigier is the French designer whose unmistakable trademark and charismatic personality made him, in about two years, the king of the designer T-shirt. A native of Avignon, France, nicknamed Le Vif — the fast one — he took the fashion industry by storm twice: first by putting Von Dutch Originals on the map with pinstripe designs and trucker hats, then by repeating the success with the tattoo designs of Don Ed Hardy, the godfather of tattoo, under the Ed Hardy name. This page gathers his biography and the interview record behind both labels.

The Ed Hardy women's and men's brand guides are linked in the directory links, along with the Ed Hardy runway show at Mercedes-Benz Fashion Week in March 2007. His career, told in full below, runs from a teenage denim collection to a casual-wear brand sold in stores around the world.

Illustrative image created for this guide — an artistic impression, not this designer's own garments.

King of Jeans

His career started in his early teens, when he was discovered by one of the top executives at MacKeen Jeans. He had already created a denim collection greatly influenced by rock and roll — "My favorite group was the Rolling Stones. It was natural for me to design cool clothes." Although under age, he joined MacKeen shortly thereafter and became a major force in the company, traveling the globe from Tokyo to Paris to New York. No more than three years later he moved to New York, formed his own company and freelanced for the biggest names of the denim industry: Guess, American Outfitters, Fiorucci, Bisou Bisou, Levi's and XOXO — and he revamped the Diesel brand. He created a name for himself and became the King of Jeans.

One cold winter day, watching a television program on Bali, he decided to move there; while still working in denim, he experimented with jersey and other materials. After a few years he returned to the States, this time to Los Angeles. In 2002 he met Tonny Sorensen, who had just acquired the rights to the name Von Dutch — the legendary pinstriper and auto mechanic. Audigier had a vision: not a film, but a fashion label. Using his knowledge of the industry, his marketing instinct and his ability to create jeans that fly off shelves, he convinced Sorensen — and the pinstripe designs and trucker hats that followed could not be avoided in LA, Miami, New York or Paris. His association with Von Dutch lasted a little over three years.

Ed Hardy: Tattoo Art as Fashion

True to his passion for cars and motorcycles, Audigier then started his own company once he was granted the exclusive rights to work with the designs of tattoo artist Don Ed Hardy. From Britney Spears, his very first celebrity client, to Ashton Kutcher, Paris Hilton, Hilary Duff and Justin Timberlake, he created a virtual who's who of celebrity wearers of the trucker hats, the jeans and the Ed Hardy T-shirt. Of tattoo art itself he is direct: it is vivid, clear and personal, a commitment made in skin — and a design placed on a shirt delivers the art without the pain. "It is the people," he says of who dictates fashion. "They are the ones to create the demand... You have to watch the people in the streets, see what they like to wear, and then you can create what they will be attracted to."

Since the trucker hats, he has designed T-shirts, jeans, jackets, bags, shoes, furniture and motorcycles, and licensed the Ed Hardy name to products from bottled water and energy drinks to shoes, belts and a pooch bag. His fashions were sold in over 3,000 stores worldwide, along with his own signature stores in LA, New York and Tucson, with Miami and Paris to follow; price points ranged from $55 to $500 for a leather jacket. The foundation of the success, in his own account, is simpler than the empire: "I was there when I needed to be. I knew the business, I was a designer by trade, I love people and marketing is my second nature."