Self-Taught Dutch Painter and Tailor Retires As Instagram Hot-Shot

Dutchman Sven Signe den Hartogh is quickly building a name for himself in the denim business. Besides modeling, getting tattooed, and organising denim-themed bicycle events, Sven puts a lot of his time into The Stranded Sailors website. Most recently he and his team introduced the first of a series of video portraits of people that inspire them.

The first video features a man who sewed his own clothes out of necessity and hardship in his youth but ended up as a self-taught painter. Quite impressive story. His name is Julien Landa and he lives in Rotterdam.

Julien is retired now, but he used to live off his beautiful oil paintings, mostly of still life with a touch of 19-century romanticism. He never lived a pompous life. Before he became an artist he lived on a tight budget and couldn’t afford clothes for himself and his wife. So he started sewing his own clothes.

Once when visiting Saint-Tropez in France, he visited a Ralph Lauren store and realised the clothes he had made had strongly resembled those of the famous American designer. Ever since he has been a Ralph Lauren-fan.

More recently Julien has made a name for himself on Instagram posting his outfits, much like Mark Large and Jacques Grosz do.

But why don’t we let Julien tell his story himself.

We’re looking forward to the rest of the videos in this Stranded Sailor series.

Head over to the Sailors for more news and updates from the Dutch denim scene.