John Varvatos Quotations

Women tell me they won't date a guy with bad shoes. There are good-looking guys with good-looking outfits, and then really bad-looking square toe I-don't-even-want-to-mention-the-label kind of shoes. There is no reason for that. Again, invest in something that looks proper. A great pair of shoes can make your old outfit look great, too.

Music has always been a dominant force in my life. As a young kid, it was a way for me to escape everyday life.

Music and fashion have had a kind of incestuous relationship since the Fifties. It started with people like Elvis Presley and pop icons like James Dean. Then it exploded in the MTV days. Now, with the Internet, it's instantaneous.

People will always have their opinions; I've come to learn whose matter.

I enjoy looking at old photos of some of my favorite rock icons, but also get inspired from the younger bands that are coming up and really creating their own style, their own image.

I always talk about a great-fitting pair of jeans. Girls are concerned about the way their butt looks in a pair of jeans, and I think a guy having a really great-fitting pair of jeans is just as important.

Guys out there have no sense of how their clothes should fit.

I think the record industry has gotten to be more about labels wondering what the new single is rather than labels nurturing artists. It's gotten away from making a full album of music that someone would want to listen to all the way through.

My vision is the ability to design clothes for a man who wants to create his own style and doesn't want to dress like he's in uniform, to look like the guy in the ad, or to feel like he has to put it together that way.

My passion in life, besides my family, was always music. From the time I was a kid, I was obsessed. I'm like the ultimate fan.

I wasn't into pop music, even at a really young age.

When I think of artists that I would have loved to work with, it's Jimi Hendrix. And Steve McQueen. He's not a rock star, but he's kind of a rock star to me.

When you do men's wear, it's less about thinking outside the box than about pushing the walls of the box outward. Men want to be evolutionary, not revolutionary.

When a man's suit fits, when the construction is beautiful, when the sewing and fabrics are there... in the end, you'll look the best in it.

When I started working in fashion, I didn't have money to buy photographs, so I'd Xerox pictures from magazines and put them in notebooks. When I'd start a collection, I'd sit with my old notebooks and look through them for inspiration.

There's rock n' roll in hip-hop, there's rock n' roll in pop music, there's rock n' roll in soul, there's rock n' roll in country. When you see people dress, and their style has an edge to it, that rebellious edge that bubbles up in every genre, that's rock n' roll. Everybody still wants to be a rock star, you know?

I shop a lot online... and just the ease of it makes a lot more sense.

The thing about the basics is they don't really change - it's the details and the proportions that change. The shirt may be cut slimmer or looser, the suit might be darker or lighter, the sneakers might not have laces, but you're still talking about shirts and suits and sneakers.

Sometimes, we need an obstacle to challenge us and push us further than we would if things were always status quo. I'd say one example is the market crashing. It's like, just when we started to get into a rhythm, everything changed! But, it taught us a great deal about how we do business and how we can improve.

The music alone wasn't enough. It was great, but when an artist had an amazing look - like the MC5, or the Stooges, or Alice Cooper - you really got sucked in. The wardrobe was so important. At a show, you were engrossed in the music, but you were also engrossed in everything from the haircuts to what they were wearing.

Style is timeless. It transcends generations - it's enduring. If you're thinking about fashion, it's of the moment. And that doesn't mean that it's not important at times to embrace trends and that type of thing, but style is less about trends than it is about how you carry yourself.

A lot of designers become hot, attend every party, and then you don't hear about them again.

A black suit can be classic and timeless and certainly for most occasions. But remember, it's not so much the color of suit as it is about the fit, cut, style, and, of course, attitude you have when wearing it.

For me, growing up in Detroit, scarves meant cold weather. But I remember working in a store, and we had some silk scarves - like, wide scarves with fringe - and because I had seen the English rockers wearing skinny silk scarves, I took the scarves, cut and sewed them, and made them long - almost like a tie.

I like someone who has a little bad boy in them, a little edge.

In the early '70s, coming out of the '60s, it was very hippy or it was very uniform, like The Beatles all wearing the same suit. Into the '70s, it became much more about a personal style. You had the glam period, which was a lot of fun, and then you went into punk.

I never wanted to be the face of the brand. You haven't seen me in my own ads. You don't see my logo all over my clothes. From the beginning, I wanted the clothes to stand on their own.

Canada - they won't like me saying this, but it's really like it's a part of Michigan, that area.

The shirt may be cut slimmer or looser, the suit might be darker or lighter, the sneakers might not have laces, but you're still talking about shirts and suits and sneakers.

I loved the MC5 and the Stooges, but also, the British Invasion - the Kinks and the Yardbirds - and then Led Zeppelin, of course. Alice Cooper was one of my favorite bands.

A part of my kind of design and inspiration ethos is that I carry around a leather notebook and I sketch in it, doodle in it, write notes in it, and I put pictures in it.

I collect vintage vinyl records.

I spent a lot of years working for Ralph Lauren, and he had so many copycats, from Tommy Hilfiger to Abercrombie & Fitch to J.Crew.

I grew up in a very small house with five brothers and sisters and my parents, all with one little bathroom. And from as early as I can remember, seven, eight years old, I was listening to music to get a way from it all. Then the discovery of all this amazing stuff that became more than just getting away from it, it became a part of my DNA.

I believe that if you think about what style means, you won't become a fashion victim.

Success is a funny thing. It means different things to different people. For me, I am always pleased when people connect to our brand. It means we are executing in a manner that speaks to a wide variety of businesses.

It's not so much the color of suit as it is about the fit, cut, style, and, of course, attitude you have when wearing it.

No matter what though, there's always rock & roll. There's rock 'n' roll in hip-hop, there's rock & roll in pop music, there's rock 'n' roll in soul, there's rock 'n' roll in country. When you see people dress and their style has an edge to it, that rebellious edge that bubbles up in every genre, that's rock & roll. Everybody still wants to be a rock star.

Bruno Mars is pretty fashionable. Gary Clarck Junior, who was also in our ad with Jimmy Page, is a super super stylish guy.

You haven't seen me in my own ads. You don't see my logo all over my clothes. From the beginning, I wanted the clothes to stand on their own.

Our philosophy is about reaching back to move forward. We have something different to say with a sensibility that is both old and new.

The great thing about living in New York is the constant change of things. It inspires me to keep moving, push forward, question ideas.