From Tattoo Artist to Trailblazer Clothing – The Ed Hardy Story

It is rather unusually rare that tattoo artists turn into clothing artists, creating in their wake an explosion of a pop culture related clothing line. Ed Hardy is probably the first to do so. Summoning his talents to a focus, Hardy set up his design studio, the nerve center of his operations, in San Francisco and later expanded it to include his retail outlets. His pop art culture caught the imagination of the young and trendy and soon his singular brand image blossomed into myriad brands each depicting their own defining styles, though the dominant theme continues to resonate with the pop culture signature theme in every sense of the word. Ed Hardy retail outlets soon networked the USA as well as other overseas cities such as Dubai, Kuwait, Tokyo, Singapore, Melbourne, Sydney, Riga and Noosa.

Later in 2004, Audigier purchased the manufacturing and marketing rights of Hardy’s Von Dutch clothing line. Although Hardy’s clothing brands have internationalized their image, there are several night clubs of Vancouver who consider his line of clothing to be associative with gang rivalries, but these are only isolated incidents.

In 1982, Hardy and his wife sparked their literary talents by editing and authoring articles and books on alternative art. Between them they authored 25 books. Apart from this Ed Hardy has organized exhibitions at various art galleries, museums, non-profit organizations and universities.

But what, you may ask, is Hardy’s objective in projecting the pop culture image to the public and who is his audience, anyway? Well, analytically speaking, Hardy, being an artist, and as most artists are, is a shrewd and intense observer of a rapidly evolving society with a message to give. So what is his message? His message is simple yet profound. Modern society is dangerously materialistic, consumeristic, ephemeral, non relational and therefore insanely complex. Modern society needs to tremendously slow down and become simple as their forefathers were when life was so gay and peaceful. This is his message; and this is how he intends to disseminate it.

On our website you will find a wide range of Ed Hardy clothing. Simply choose the type or types that best gels with your identity and harmony with hardy’s message.