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.

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); 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.

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