Men's Von Dutch Fashion Brand

Von Dutch is an American multinational apparel brand named after Kenny Howard, aka "Von Dutch", an American artist and pinstriper of the Kustom Kulture movement. Unusually for this directory, the brand's name is a working craftsman's nickname before it is a clothing label: the apparel came later, and the man came first. Kenneth Robert Howard (September 7, 1929 - September 19, 1992), also known as Dutch, Von Dutch, or J. L. Bachs (Joe Lunch Box), was an American motorcycle mechanic, artist, pinstriper, metal fabricator, knifemaker and gunsmith - six trades, and the breadth of them is the point.

The "Von Dutch" nickname was intended to mean "stubborn as a Dutchman." However, von is not Dutch, but German - for "of," whereas the Dutch cognate is van. That linguistic correction is part of the brand's own history: the famous name rests on a deliberate misreading, a German prefix worn as a Dutch joke about stubbornness, by a pinstriper who kept it for his whole career.

From Howard's Name to a Clothing Brand

After Howard's death in 1992, his daughters sold the Von Dutch name to Michael Cassel and Robert Vaughn. That sale is the bridge in this record between the Kustom Kulture artist and the apparel brand: the name was an estate asset, sold by his daughters, and only then built into clothing. The clothing brand gained popularity in the US and attracted the attention of celebrities.

The company was purchased in 2009 by Groupe Royer S.A., through its Luxembourg subsidiary Royer Brands International S.a.r.l. That 2009 ownership record - the French group, the Luxembourg subsidiary, the exact subsidiary name - is part of the brand's history. No later ownership history is given here; the story runs artist, then name sale, then popularity, then the 2009 purchase.

The Flying Eyeball and What It Means

The famous "flyin' eyeball" logo - what does this all mean? According to Von Dutch, the flying eyeball originated with the Macedonian and Egyptian cultures about 5000 years ago. It was a symbol meaning "the eye in the sky knows all and sees all." Dutch got a hold of this symbol and modified it into the flyin' eyeball we know of today. His belief of reincarnation is tied into the logo, in that all past lives are watching what you do in the present.

There have been numerous "incarnations" of this design over the years and it still remains an icon of the '50s and '60s street rod crowd. That judgment places the mark where it belongs: not as a fashion invention of the clothing years, but as a street rod icon from Howard's own era that the apparel brand inherited. The brand's official site is linked in References below.

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