CURSE OF VON DUTCH
Hat's A Shame - NEW DOC ON HULU
Remember those ubiquitous Von Dutch trucker hats from the mid 2000s? They’re back in the spotlight….well, sort of.
Von Dutch, the iconic early aughts fashion brand worn by everyone from Britney Spears to Ashton Kutcher to Justin Timberlake, is finally getting the documentary treatment. Titled The Curse of Von Dutch, the three-part doc first takes a deep dive into the brand’s auto-customization beginnings in 1951 with Kenny Howard, a Third Reich admirer who was known as Von Dutch – a reference to the expression “stubborn as a Dutchman.” He saw almost immediate success, and specialized in pinstriping/customizing motorbikes and automobiles. People from other parts of the country would even ship their motorbikes to him in order to get Howard’s trademark customization. Not long after, things would take an odd, dark turn, and this character-fueled saga captures it all.
After Howard’s death in 1992, his daughters sold the Von Dutch name to Michael Cassel and Robert Vaughn. Under the direction of Cassel and Vaughn, the brand began to morph into what we know as the Von Dutch of today (or rather, the Von Dutch of 2003). Around the early ‘00s, we started seeing the brand literally everywhere. Ashton Kutcher wore the brand’s famed trucker hats (probably the single most ubiquitous piece of Von Dutch merchandise at the time) in seemingly every episode of Punk’d. Starlets like Britney Spears, Paris Hilton, and even Pamela Anderson were seen wearing the label, and by the time 2002/2003 rolled around, Von Dutch had solidified itself as one of the biggest brands in pop culture.
As the label grew to new heights, so too did the infighting. Von Dutch started opening its own stores, including one on Melrose Avenue, and did its best to ride the wave of success. Fellow designer-du-jour Christian Audigier worked with the brand and helped bring it to the stratosphere before leaving (on amicable terms, believe it or not) in 2004 to work his magic over at another mid 2000s brand – the gaudy, bejeweled Tom Hardy. After this high point, the seemingly inevitable fights for control of Von Dutch began. Non-stop battling between the owners for control of the brand eventually swept it into oblivion, and the label was soon sold to a European shoe distributor (if you want to visit the company website, it’s vondutch.fr, not vondutch.com). Kylie Jenner tried to make Von Dutch popular again in 2016, but even she couldn’t manage to get the brand back on its feet.
The Curse of Von Dutch will air as a three-part series on Hulu. Dust off your old trucker hat and be sure to give it a watch.
