Kenny Howard is a name that many will not know, you may not even realise how important his work is to the automobile but with out his unique approach we would probably never come across the art of the pin stripping.
So why do celebs where his name blazon over their chests do they really know the man behind Von Dutch.
At the age of 15 Von was hard at work at George Beerup's motorcycle shop. Kenny would bring the odd bike home and using his dads sign writing tools would set about covering bikes in stripes. This was the beginning of something big and Dutch's reputation grew over the next decade.
The first car he stripped was done as a joke but after meeting a guy called 'Crazy Arab' Kenny turned his hand full time. You could not tell Dutch what you wanted you just paid for his time. He never liked fame and tried to get out of jobs by charging higher and higher prices, but customisers just kept coming and Kenny spawned hundreds of imitators and followers.
Despite his genius and popularity he never made any money and made a point of living on the edge of poverty and for a long time lived on a bus which was payment for a job he had done earlier.
"I don't have a pair of pants without a hole in them, and the only pair of boots I have are on my feet. I don't mess around with unnecessary stuff, so I don't need much money. I believe it's meant to be that way. There's a struggle you have to go through, and if you make a lot of money it doesn't make the struggle go away. It just makes it more complicated. If you keep poor, the struggle is simple. "
Dutch was also a skilled mechanic and gunsmith, and preferred working in these mediums as he felt they would always last longer than mere paint and these items show his true skill.
Unfortunately Von died on 19th September 1992, probably down to his life style, leaving his famous flying eyeball logo to be used by a successful clothing company.
So next time you see his expensive jeans or t-shirt being worn laugh to yourself as I bet the wearer has not got a clue about this mans genius. I'm sure Kenny is !
