Johnson Hartig

In 2019, Hartig created luxury-apparel line to honor Jimi Hendrix in honor of the 50th anniversary of the musician's Electic Ladyland album.

In November 2016, at an invite-only Libertine event at Neiman Marcus, former San Francisco mayor Willie Brown presented Hartig with a government proclamation signifying the key to the city.

His book, Johnson Hartig/Libertine: The Creative Beauty, Humor, and Inspiration Behind the Cult Label, was published by Rizzoli in 2015.

He became one of the first designers to create a line for the Wear LACMA project, which was sold to benefit the Los Angeles County Museum of Art. For the museum's 50th anniversary in 2015, Hartig was one of those who created new Wear LACMA pieces to mark the occasion.

Hartig first met Vogue editor Anna Wintour, in 2003 and subsequently the magazine has featured his clothes several times. The following year Libertine was nominated as one of the 10 semi-finalists in the first CFDA/Vogue Fashion Fund which was documented in the film Seamless directed by Douglass Keeve

Settling in Los Angeles, California, Hartig founded the Libertine clothing line in 2001 with DKNY graphic designer Cindy Greene, a vocalist of electro-pop band Fischerspooner. Originally, his designs—vintage style with silk-screened art like skulls, 19th century portraits, and crystal beading—caught the attention of fashion designers like Karl Lagerfeld as well as artists such as Damien Hirst. In 2007, Hartig designed one of Target's Go International collaborations, and dissolved his partnership with Greene soon after.