Saturday 8 January 2011

You Need To Know Designer-Christian Audigie.

Christian Audigier (May 21, 1958) is a French fashion designer and entrepreneur. He gained international fame for creating the Ed Hardy tattoo clothing apparel brand.

Christian Audigier was raised in Avignon, southern France. As a young teen, he took a job as a salesman at a boutique in Avignon where he was able to boost denim sales through merchandising and marketing.The increased sales figures caught the attention of executives at Mac Keen Jeans, who travelled from Paris to Avignon to meet with him. As a result, Audigier was hired as a denim designer for Mac Keen at the age of 15. While still in his teens, he also worked as a designer for Elio Fiorucci, where he earned the nickname “King of Jeans.”

Audigier continued his work as a designer and opened his own clothing and packaging company, Christian Audigier and His Gang, where he consulted for over 100 labels worldwide including Diesel, Levi’s and Lee.

After achieving success in Avignon, Christian Audigier moved to Los Angeles where he partnered with Von Dutch Originals. While at Von Dutch, Audigier started the trucker cap fashion trend, among other influential trends
In 2004, Audigier left Von Dutch to start Ed Hardy, where he designed apparel using tattoo artwork. He licensed the graphics of Don Ed Hardy, a tattoo pioneer , who was one of the first outsiders to study in Japan under tattoo master Horihide.
With the success of Ed Hardy, Christian Audigier started several other brands, including the eponymous Christian Audigier line; Crystal Rock, a teen fashion brand named after his daughter Crystal Audigier; Smet, inspired by French superstar, Johnny Hallyday; Rock Fabulous, designed with Dave Stewart of the Eurythmics; Paco Chicano and Vif Speed Shop, featuring a redesigned line of Cadillac Escalade SUVs. The aesthetics of the vehicle were not accepted by critics. One news outlet referred to the vehicle as "tacky." Audiger has put his brand's moniker on luxury condoms.
Christian Audigier formed Audigier Brand Management Group (ABMG), which manages licensing of the brands. Christian Audigier’s licensing program extends beyond apparel, with clothing and lifestyle products. Licensed products encompass all categories of consumer goods. Ed Hardy has over 100 licensed products ranging from apparel, accessories, and beauty.
Augigier established his own trade show called When I Move You Move in Las Vegas in 2008. The trade show featured over 100 booths of Audigier’s brands, as well as several outside brands.“A trade show concept centered on a single parent company was groundbreaking and had

In 2008, it was widely stated that Audigier was starting a clothing line with Michael Jackson. However, due to Jackson's untimely death, the current status of the label remains unknown. In regards to line's creation, Audigier stated:

I was working on merchandising with him and launching a new line of clothes, which was actually Michael’s dream. A month-and-a-half ago I had a dinner at his house and he was in perfect shape and was really happy and excited to be coming to London and what has happened since then has been very sad. It was based on various types of merchandising on different products, also accessories. What he wanted from me was the T-shirts and the hoodies and the caps. And it was very kind of royalist – kind of a mix of the real Michael Jackson and his alter-ego as the King of Pop.
never existed previously.”

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