The menswear guy, especially coats and footwear (shoes, boots, even Varvatos Converse sneakers — high end sneakers, at $100 to $140 each), though now he’s branched out in other directions: men’s fragrances and recordings, in particular. You can view a short commercial for the John Varvatos Fall 2015 Menswear Collection here. It’s a pas de deux between two beautiful fashion models (beautiful in two different ways), Nick Rea and Jonas Kesseler, left and right in this still at the end of the ad:
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The ad focuses on their coats and, in frequent shots, their boots. And it has a haunting sound track, “Old Bones”, performed by Tyler Bryant and the Shakedown (on, yes, John Varvatos Records).
Here’s Rea looking seductively beautiful in a spread of homotography by Giovanni Squatriti in Essential Homme magazine (September/October 2011):
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From that same spread, a trio of macho-hunky models, shirtless in their underwear:
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On to Jonas Kesseler, seen here looking steamy in a John Varvatos fragrance ad:
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And back to Varvatos himself. From his website:
Ask John Varvatos to pinpoint the moment when his obsession with fashion and music began, and he’ll show you a photo of The Stooges taken in 1970. “It was all hippies before these guys,” says the Detroit native. “They showed up wearing motorcycle jackets, ripped jeans, aviators … nobody looked like them at the time.”
Oh my. And there’s a Michigan connection, Detroit and Ann Arbor; from Wikipedia:
The Stooges, also known as Iggy and the Stooges, are an American proto-punk band from Ann Arbor, Michigan, first active from 1967 to 1974, and later reformed in 2003. Although they sold few records in their original incarnation, and often performed for indifferent or hostile audiences, the Stooges are widely regarded as instrumental in the rise of punk rock, as well as influential to alternative rock, heavy metal and rock music at large.
Here’s a classic Stooges shot, with the guys looking disdainful and provocative (in several senses):
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You can listen to the Stooges punking out “I Wanna Be Your Dog” (1969) on YouTube here.
