Designer Christian Audigier, 57, Known for His Work with Ed Hardy, Dies

The man behind the popular Ed Hardy designs, Christian Audigier, has passed away at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles after a long battle with cancer and a bone marrow disease known as myelodysplastic syndrome, CNN reported. The bad news was delivered by the designer's publicist and also friend Michele Elyzabeth.

Audigier, who started working in the fashion industry at the young age of 14, caught the attention of a top executive from Macken jeans, when he designed denims inspired by his admiration for The Rolling Stones. The company gave him the opportunity to design for their brand and to travel the world, which eventually allowed Audigier to relocate to New York in his early 20s, where he worked his way up the ladder of fame.

Over the years, the French designer Audigier had worked with world-famous brands like Diesel, Levi's, Guess, American Outfitters and XOXO. Although he had been in the field of fashion design for years and had notable accomplishments as a designer, he owes his fame to Von Dutch and Ed Hardy. Audigier was the designer behind the early 2000s work of the Ed Hardy brand.

In a statement after the death of the French designer, CNN reported that Don Ed Hardy said: "It is a sad end to a brilliant marketer; his incredible energy and vision brought my artwork to global attention."

Although Hardy's public statement after the designer's death might suggest that the two have always been on good terms, the reality does not hold that to be true. Ed Hardy and Audigier had settled a lawsuit in 2009, after Hardy made accusations over the terms of the licensing agreement they signed together and claimed that Audigier failed to fulfill his responsibilities.

Audigier was a husband and father of four.