John Varvatos

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John Varvatos (2006)

John Varvatos (* 1955 in Detroit ) is a Greek- American fashion designer who mainly designs and sells men's clothing , accessories and perfume under his name . Varvatos, who worked as a designer for Polo Ralph Lauren and Calvin Klein between 1984 and 1999, became internationally known with his collections from the early 2000s. Seat of John Varvatos Enterprises, Inc. is New York City . The company has been owned by a British investment company since mid-2012 .

biography

The branch Bowery Street 315, New York (formerly CBGB)

Varvatos grew up in Allen Park, Michigan (near Detroit ) as the son of an immigrant family from Poulata on the Greek island of Kefalonia in humble circumstances. Even in high school , he wanted to "look cool" by trying to "always dress like a rock star". After school and during his studies , he worked in men's fashion retail. Varvatos holds a college degree from Eastern Michigan University . He and a friend opened a shop in Grand Rapids that successfully sold Polo Ralph Lauren fashion , which made the Ralph Lauren company aware of Varvatos. From 1983 he worked in various positions for Ralph Lauren, switched to Calvin Klein in 1990 , where he became women's fashion and finally chief designer, and after a high-ranking position at the American coat manufacturer London Fog returned to Ralph Lauren in 1995, where he worked brought the Polo Jeans Co. collection onto the market. In 1998 he took on a management position at the American sportswear brand Nautica . With Nautica launched it in 1999 his own company.

In December 2005, Varvatos married his partner Joyce Zylberberg. He has two grown children, Lindsey and John Jr., and a daughter, Thea (* 2008), Zylberberg.

Varvatos as a brand

Bottle of the John Varvatos VINTAGE fragrance

Varvatos founded the company John Varvatos in 1999 at the age of 40 with financial support from the American sportswear manufacturer Nautica as his own company, which sells men's clothing and accessories based on his designs. Nautica had already offered Varvatos in the early 1990s to launch its own brand, without success. In mid-2000, Varvatos also received a seat on the Nautica Board of Directors . The first collection of the high-priced main label John Varvatos Collection for men to be praised by journalists and retailers was finally presented in June 2000 and shown for the spring / summer 2001 season in September 2000 at New York Fashion Week . At the same time, Varvatos created their denim- based collection Nautica Jeans for Nautica . The Council of Fashion Designers of America (CFDA) then honored Varvatos with the Perry Ellis Award for emerging talent. In 2001 and 2005 he was named Menswear Designer of the Year by the CFDA . The fashion of Varvatos is sold in the USA in highly positioned department stores such as Neiman Marcus or Bloomingdale’s , as well as eleven (as of 2013) own John Varvatos boutiques, the first of which opened in SoHo in October 2000 , as well as internationally in high-end retail. The most famous Varvatos branch is the former rock music club CBGB (since 2008) on the Bowery .

2001 began a cooperation with the sporting goods manufacturer Converse , for which Varvatos initially revised the existing shoe models Chuck Taylor All Star (including from 2004 the commercially highly successful Varvatos model Vintage Slip without laces ) and Jack Purcell . From January 2002 John Varvatos Collection Mode was also represented in European retail, for example at Selfridges and Harvey Nichols in London . In 2004, a moderately successful, high-priced women's fashion line was added to the portfolio under the name John Varvatos Collection (discontinued in early 2009). Starting in 2006, a separate fashion collection called Converse by John Varvatos was launched for young men and women. Converse had previously offered clothing under its own brand and is still doing this today with a narrow sportswear collection in addition to the Varvatos line. Women's fashion for Converse was discontinued in 2009. Since then, the John Varvatos brand - with the exception of the women's perfume that continues to be produced - has been a purely men's brand again. The men's clothing from Converse by John Varvatos has not been around since the beginning of the 2010s, only the sports shoes are still available. At the beginning of 2006, the John Varvatos Star USA sportswear collection for men, developed in 2003, was officially added to the Varvatos portfolio as a youth bridge line, the logo of which is a stylized Victory symbol . In the same year, the range was expanded to include sunglasses and, from the end of 2008, watches . Since January 2009, the main collection, which was previously presented at the fashion shows in New York, has been shown twice a year at the men's shows in Milan , because Milan is the most important location in the world for international men's fashion. The online shop started on its own website at the end of 2009 .

In 2003 Nautica, and with it the John Varvatos brand , was bought up by the American VF Corporation . After VF Corporation initially wanted to sell the John Varvatos brand to the designer in 2004, the new subsidiary John Varvatos Enterprises, Inc. was founded within the group in 2005 . John Varvatos has a 20% stake and acts as chairman , CEO and chief designer. The Japanese company Shiseido produced the men's fragrances John Varvatos Mens (2004), John Varvatos Vintage (2006), John Varvatos ARTISAN (2009), John Varvatos Rock Volume One (2009), John Varvatos ARTISAN Black (2010), jv 00/10 (2010, for the 10th company anniversary), the women's perfume John Varvatos (2008) and the care product series John Varvatos Skin . From 2010 the license for the cosmetics division was taken over by Elizabeth Arden . In mid-2012, the John Varvatos company was sold by VF Corporation to the British investment company Lion Captal LLC, which also owns shares in the shoe brand Jimmy Choo and American Apparel . John Varvatos himself kept his company shares and remained chairman of the board of directors and chief creative officer (chief designer).

In 2009, John Varvatos Enterprises had estimated revenues of $ 125 million. In 2010 the company celebrated its 10th anniversary.

At the end of 2012, John Varvatos designed an unlimited version of the Chrysler 300 C luxury sedan ( Luxury Edition ) and at the beginning of 2013 a version limited to 2,000 units ( Limited Edition ). The special model was presented in several TV spots in which Varvatos himself appears and is accompanied in a variant of the spots by Iggy Pop . When working together, it was important to Chrysler that Varvatos was born in Detroit and that its roots lie in Motor City. Varvatos had previously appeared in a television sport for Chrysler in 2011 and auctioned a limited-edition Chrysler 300 S model in early 2012 for the benefit of the Stuart House charity , see also below.

Varvatos style

Model from the John Varvatos Collection Fall / Winter 2010/11

John Varvatos is a men's fashion brand in the field of 'contemporary sportswear' with subtle, masculine designs made from high-quality fabrics . The detail-complete collections "for real men" include, classic business suits , elegant coats , ' rock ' jeans, T-shirts in the vintage style, rough leather jackets or rustic shoes / boots. The style can be described as classic-sporty and at the same time - more strongly than with Calvin Klein or Ralph Lauren - strikingly masculine, as "a mixture of elegance and negligent chic" and not as casual-sporty like, for example, fashion from Tommy Hilfiger , as fashionably modern like Prada , Gucci or Marc Jacobs or as classically elegant like Armani or Tom Ford . Initially, most of the John Varvatos collection had a "Made in Italy" label; however, the cost-intensive production in Italy was scaled back after the sale to the VF Corporation.

The company's image includes an affinity for music, especially rock 'n' roll . Varvatos himself is a rock music fan and plays the guitar. In the past, musicians such as Iggy Pop , Alice Cooper , Perry Farrell or the bands The Roots , Velvet Revolver , Franz Ferdinand , ZZ Top , Cheap Trick and KISS have been signed up for the company's advertising campaigns .

Collections

• John Varvatos Collection - high-priced men's main line with accessories, glasses, watches and fragrances (since 2000)
• John Varvatos STAR USA - youthful bridge line for men with accessories in the upper middle price segment (since 2003/2006)
• Converse by John Varvatos - youthful second line with sports shoes (since 2001)

former collections:

• John Varvatos Collection - high-priced women's main line with accessories, glasses, watches and fragrances (2004–2009)
• Converse by John Varvatos - youthful second line with women’s (2006–2009) and men’s clothing (2006– early 2010s) in the lower mid-price segment

Awards (selection)

• 2000 Perry Ellis Award from the CFDA
• 2005 Menswear Designer of the Year Award

Social

In addition to the collections, Varvatos designed hats with the Hungry logo . The proceeds went to help those in need in Massachusetts as part of the Labels Are For Jars campaign .

The Annual Stuart House Benefit , organized by John Varvatos with well-known musicians, has taken place every year since 2003 . Stuart House is a UCLA Medical Center in Los Angeles affiliated facility in Santa Monica that helps abused children.

Web links

• johnvarvatos.com
• Collections by John Varvatos from 2005 on style.com
• About the style of Varvatos on fashion offer 110

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Look like a rock star , nymag.com, August 25, 2003.
2. ↑ John Varvatos visits Austin ( memento of the original from October 11, 2009 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. , statesman.com, October 8, 2009.  
3. ↑ CFDA: Past Winners , cfda.com, accessed on March 13, 2015 (English).
4. ^ John Varvatos, New York , Textilwirtschaft, January 4, 2010.
5. ^ Converse - About us , converse.com, accessed: March 27, 2011.
6. ↑ VF participates in New Yorker Designer  ( page no longer available , search in web archives )  Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. , Textile Industry, April 28, 2005.  
7. ↑ Growing up is hard to do: a decade of John Varvatos ( Memento of the original from December 17, 2010 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. , flaunt.com, accessed: December 20, 2010.  
8. ↑ Fashion's John Varvatos Designs Two Special Chrysler 300 Sedans , motorauthority.com, September 13, 2012.
9. ↑ Chrysler's new 300C John Varvatos Edition ad , autoweek.com, March 22, 2013.
10. ↑ John Varvatos - American Beauty  ( page no longer available , search in web archives )  Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. , Textile Industry, June 26, 2002.  
11. ^ John Varvatos Fall / Winter 2010/11 , Textile Industry, January 19, 2010.
12. ↑ What's the trend, John Varvatos?  ( Page no longer available , search in web archives )  Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. , Textile Industry, January 3, 2002.