1. John Varvatos was born on 1954 and is an American menswear designer.
20 Facts About John Varvatos
1. 2.
John Varvatos has worked for both Ralph Lauren and Calvin Klein, and started his own label in 1999.
3.
The Varvatos family is originally from the village of Poulata on the island of Kefalonia, Greece.
4.
John Varvatos was born in Detroit and grew up in Allen Park, Michigan.
5.
John Varvatos attended Eastern Michigan University and the University of Michigan.
6.
John Varvatos then moved on to Calvin Klein in 1990 where he was appointed head of menswear design and oversaw the launch of the men's collection and the cK brand.
7.
In 1995, John Varvatos returned to Ralph Lauren as head of menswear design for all Polo Ralph Lauren brands and created the Polo Jeans Company.
8.
In late 1999, John Varvatos started his company, debuting his first clothing line at the end of 2000 in New York.
9.
In September 2000, within months of showing his first collection, John Varvatos opened a freestanding boutique in SoHo.
10.
The collection is currently distributed in John Varvatos boutiques including the 315 Bowery boutique in the space that formerly housed the underground music club CBGB.
11.
In 2012, John Varvatos joined the cast of celebrity mentors on NBC's Fashion Star, a reality competition series that searched for the next big brand in fashion.
12.
The John Varvatos company filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in May of 2020.
13.
In September of 2023, John Varvatos was appointed Chief Design Officer of Under Armour, a publicly traded US performance apparel company founded by Kevin Plank.
14.
Commenting, John Varvatos said, "Both inner peace and global peace are very important topics to me".
15.
In 2001, Varvatos and Converse formed a partnership and Varvatos was licensed to create a line of high end sneakers, John Varvatos' sneakers were usually produced in the style of High Top Chuck Taylor All-Stars.
16.
The partnership has since ended, and John Varvatos now produces a "Bootleg" line in a similar Chuck Taylor style.
17.
John Varvatos had first received accolades from the Council of Fashion Designers of America in 2000 when he was honored with the Perry Ellis Award for Menswear.
18.
In 2005, John Varvatos received the CFDA's 2005 Menswear Designer of the Year award at the New York Public Library.
19.
John Varvatos competed for the top honor along with Ralph Lauren and John Bartlett for his third CFDA win.
20.
In 2007, John Varvatos was named GQs Designer of the Year.