Von Dutch

It sounds like a dream when living a simple life makes you a rollicking success story.

But when your name is Kenny Howard, a man who viewed fame, glory and money as more of a curse than a blessing, the American dream becomes a nightmare.

Who is Howard? Maybe you know him better as Von Dutch. Or maybe you only know the Von Dutch name because it has appeared on the baseball caps, blue jeans, T-shirts and motorcycle jackets of Justin Timberlake, Paris Hilton and Britney Spears. Now, 17 years after his death in September of 1992, the Von Dutch name is a multi-million dollar brand. It is the coolest thing this side of the Hollywood hills. It has become a license to print money.

And who would have thought it?

Probably not the real Von Dutch, or, Kenny Howard, who was a pioneer of the 1960s custom-car craze. Born in 1929, he was the man who transformed mere pin-striping into an art form, from motorcycles to car bodies.

Howard earned his nickname for his stubbornness at an early age. Family members called him "Dutch" because they believed "he was as stubborn as a Dutchman," according to a book published by a Laguna Beach, Calif., art museum.

The son of a sign painter in Los Angeles, Calif., Howard began his technique of pin-striping after watching his father do much of the same work on flower carts in outdoor markets in L.A.

As a child, Howard hung out in his father's shop, learning the craft of sign painting. In the early 1940s, after finishing high school, he began working at a motorcycle shop and discovered that pinstripes could conceal scratches and imperfections. Howard was onto something.

Pin-striping on cars and motorcycles was a dead art when he began his craft. Howard helped customizers bring it back in a radical form.

Soon he was painting everything with his unique touch, including cars, motorcycles and even T-shirts.

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