How Libertine’s Johnson Hartig Discovered L.A. Cool 21 Years Ago

Twenty-one years ago, in a three-bedroom apartment in L.A.’s not-yet-trendy Koreatown, an aspiring actor began decorating shirts he had snagged on the cheap. To entertain himself he added random seams and sewed rococo ribbons of shirting fabric that frothed at the necklines, turning pedestrian tailored men’s shirts into artful genderless garments, each as unique as the hand that produced it. The aesthetic was prep school punk. Soon the local boutiques Maxfield and Ron Herman were selling the shirts for $500, buying them out of pillowcases hauled around by the designer, Johnson Hartig. By the time Colette, in Paris, and Joyce,… Read Full Article