Men's shoes > Top brands > John Varvatos
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Varvatos family comes originally from the Greek island of Kefalonia. John Varvatos grew up in the metro Detroit suburb of Allen Park, a downriver community situated south of the city of Detroit. He attended Allen Park High School. Varvatos first worked for Polo Ralph Lauren in 1983 then worked at Calvin Klein in 1990, where he was head of menswear design. He returned to Polo in 1995, where he was VP of menswear design.
In Fall 1999, Varvatos started his eponymous company, debuting his first clothing line for Fall/Winter 2000.
In 2000, John Varvatos was licensed to create a line of Converse All-Star shoes for the Fall/Winter Season that year. The designs were so popular that they have continued to acquire his talents to this day, even branching out into other Converse shoe styles like Jack Purcell and One Star.
In 2003, John's company became part of Nautica Enterprises, Inc., which was subsequently acquired by VF Corporation[1]. In 2005, John Varvatos entered into a partnership with VF Corporation to create a new partnership, John Varvatos Enterprises, Inc. where Varvatos serves as CEO and president of the new company.
In Spring 2006 John launched his first eyewear collection. In February 2007, it was announced that American supergroup Velvet Revolver would be the face of Varvatos' spring 2007 ad campaign.
Varvatos's clothing is sold in such stores as Neiman Marcus, Saks Fifth Avenue, Nordstrom, Bloomingdales, Barneys, Holt Renfrew and other stores and in the company's own boutiques located in SoHo, Los Angeles, The Forum Shops at Caesars in Las Vegas, Costa Mesa, East Hampton,and San Francisco
In late 2007 Varvatos purchased the location that once housed CBGB and opened a boutique there in April, 2008.
In 2008, Cheap Trick were selected for the John Varvatos spring/summer ad campaign. The perfect black and white filming backdrop for the ad production was set on a beach with the popular group on bicycles set to their song California Man.
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