Christian Audigier, Ed Hardy and Von Dutch fashion mogul, dead at 57: reports
French fashion designer and entrepreneur revealed battle with bone disease in January
Christian Audigier, the fashion designer and entrepreneur who propelled Ed Hardy and Von Dutch into wildly successful international brands, has died, reports TMZ and fashion-industry trade journal WWD.
The French-born businessman was 57.
The cause of death has not been confirmed, but Audigier revealed he had been diagnosed with Myelodysplastic syndrome, or MDS, back in January.
The bone disease can transform into cancer in about one third of patients, according to the Canadian Cancer Society.
Born in Avignon in the south of France in 1958, Audigier would go on to start his own denim line before moving to New York to work at top labels such as Guess, Levis, Diesel and American Outfitters.
His meteoric rise through the fashion industry was furthered fuelled when he moved to Los Angeles and helped popularize Von Dutch. The California-based company went from relative obscurity to a celebrity-loved label best known for its trucker hats under Audigier's stewardship, according to his official biography.
Audigier left Von Dutch in 2004 to create Ed Hardy, the "glam chic" street brand featuring the stylized designs of tattoo artist Don Ed Hardy.