Kustom Kulture

Kustom Kulture is an American neologism used to describe the artworks, vehicles, hairstyles, and fashions of those who drove and built custom cars and motorcycles in the United States of America from the 1950s through today. It was born out of the hot rod culture of Southern California of the 1960s.^[1]

In the early days of hot rodding, many fashions and styles developed. Over time, each of these distinct styles of customizing have blended and reshaped our everyday life. Artists such as Von Dutch (Kenny Howard), Robert Williams, and custom car builder Ed "Big Daddy" Roth; along with Lyle Fisk, Dean Jeffries; hot rod and lowrider customizers such as the Barris Brothers (Sam and George Barris);^[2] along with numerous tattoo artists, automobile painters, and movies and television shows such as American Graffiti, The Munsters (The Munster Koach, Drag-u-la) have all helped to form what is known as Custom Culture.

Custom Culture is usually identified with the greasers of the 1950s, the drag racers of the 1960s, and the lowriders of the 1970s. Other subcultures that have had an influence on Custom Culture are the Skinheads, mods and rockers of the 1960s, the punk rockers of the 1970s, the metal and rockabilly music, along with the scooterboys of the 1980s, and psychobilly of the 1990s. Each separate culture has added their own customizations to the cars, their own fashions, influenced the music, and added their own ideas of what is cool, of what is acceptable, and what is not. Everything from wild pinstriped paintjobs, to choptop Mercurys, to custom Harley-Davidson and Triumph Motorcycles, to metal-flake and black primer paint jobs, along with music, cartoons, and monster movies have influenced what defines anyone and anything who is part of this automobile subculture.

In the 1990s and 2000s, Custom Culture had taken on a rebirth of American subcultures from the 1950s and 1960s with DIY activities. Each style is distinct, and has its roots in American automobile history. Many styles that would not have tolerated each other in the past now come together in large car shows.

The rebirth of Custom Culture has seen the use of the term “Custom Graphics” to describe the style of artwork associated with the subculture when applied to posters, flyers, T-shirts and logos.

See also

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Kustom Kulture.

• Kenny Howard (Von Dutch)
• Ed Roth
• Robert Williams
• Custom car
• Hot rod
• Rat Fink
• Rat rod
• Biker cross
• Lowbrow (art movement)
• Raggare
• Psychobilly
• Rockabilly

References

Renegade Magazine's Custom Culture Circus - Renegade Magazine

Further reading

• Custom Graphics, Korero, 2008, ISBN 9780955339868
• Custom Kulture, Last Gasp, 2005, ISBN 978-0867194050
• Dizzy Dictionary, The: A Lowbrow Guide to Custom Culture, Last Gasp, 2009, ISBN 978-0867197051
• Kustom Graphics 2, Korero, 2010, ISBN 9780955833618
• DeWitt, John. Cool Cars, High Art The Rise of Custom Culture. University Press of Mississippi. ISBN 1578064031.