Editing Von Dutch (section)

===Kenny Howard===
[[Kenny Howard|Kenneth Robert Howard]] was an American motorcycle mechanic, artist, pin striper, metal fabricator, knifemaker and gunsmith. The inspiration to create the clothing line started with Howard's daughters Lisa and Lorna after his death. They decided to use his artistic name Von Dutch; "Dutch" was a family nickname for Howard because he was considered to be "as stubborn as a Dutchman". 

Howard had passion for cars and motorcycles. He also created special effects for Hollywood films, and served as a consultant for several period films. His most recognizable work was in 1955 at the 1955 Motorama; he was able to stripe a 1927 [[Studebaker]] for 10 days. Today, Howard is known as the father of modern pin-striping.<ref>{{Cite web|title=The Von Dutch Story - Kustomrama|url=https://kustomrama.com/wiki/Von_Dutch|access-date=November 21, 2021|website=kustomrama.com}}</ref>

He was famously indifferent about the rights to his work, dismissing copyrights and patents as an "ego trip".<ref>{{cite web|magazine=Graffiti Magazine|url=http://www.graffiti-magazine.net/?p=9125|title=Nothing is original|date=17 March 2012|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150713184240/http://www.graffiti-magazine.net/?p=9125|archive-date=2015-07-13}}</ref> He sold the Von Dutch name to fellow pinstriper Steve Kafka for $5,000.

Howard was a virulent racist and admirer of Hitler's Third Reich.  “A letter he wrote about abandoning harsh medical treatment for a fatal illness is blunt: ‘I am not willing to go through it anymore only to emerge in a place full of Africans, Mexicans and Jews. … I have always been a Nazi and still believe it was the last time the world had a chance of being operated with logic. What a shame so many Americans died and suffered to make the rich richer and save England & France again, or was that still. I hope you lying wimps get swallowed up with your stupidity,’” he wrote.  <ref>{{cite web | url=https://melmagazine.com/en-us/story/von-dutch-trucker-hat-racist-origins | title=The Astonishingly Racist Origins of the 'Von Dutch' Trucker Hat | date=July 2020 }}</ref>

Howard died in 1992 of [[liver failure]], resulting from [[alcoholism]].<ref>{{cite journal|last=Smith|first=RJ|title=Triumph of the Wheels|issue=5|date=May 2004|volume=74|publisher=Emmis Communications|location=Los Angeles, California|pages=90–97, 180–187|journal=[[Los Angeles Magazine]]|issn=1522-9149}}</ref>