“[REBELS] ARE NOT INTERESTED IN CONFORMING, NOT JUST FOR THE SAKE OF BEING NON-CONFORMIST—BEING AGAINST EVERYTHING THAT THEIR PARENT OR SCHOOL OR WORK SAYS—BUT BECAUSE THEY FIND THAT THERE’S ANOTHER PATH FOR THEM.”
NATALIE ALVAREZ: IF THE PLACE WERE BURNING DOWN, WHAT WOULD YOU GRAB OUT OF YOUR OFFICE? JOHN VARVATOS: That’s a hard one . . . there’s not just one. Everything in here, be it guitars signed by all members of The Stooges, or the picture of me and Iggy in Central Park. But if the place were up in flames, those are coming with me (points to the golden records signed by Jimmy Page and Robert Plant behind me). NA: IT SEEMS LIKE YOU REALLY HAVE A THING FOR DOING THINGS DIFFERENTLY, ESPECIALLY WHEN IT COMES TO MENSWEAR. WHAT IS YOUR DEFINITION OF A REBEL? JV: Well, I don’t know that there’s anything that hasn’t been done before, so as much as I wanna be rebellious, it’s more about just pushing the walls out. [Rebels] are not interested in conforming, not just for the sake of being non-conformist—being against everything that their parent or school or work says—but because they find that there’s another path for them. So, there’s a lot of different types of rebels. But you know, the one thing that’s kind of innate in all of them is that they want to walk to their own beat. I want to know, who are the rebels of today? Because I look out there and I say, “where are they?” Most of them are women, and they’re young, but there’s not a lot of them. They may be smart and interesting and adventurous, but they’re not really looking to go out and make trouble. Whether I like or don’t like, Miley Cyrus, for example, she’s a rebel. I find that intriguing. And Taylor Swift, I think she’s a rebel because she walked away from country music even though she had this huge career in it and management said she shouldn’t do it and she did it. I said to her manager, “she should be the voice of rebel youth right now” and he looked at me and said “it’s funny you say that because she’s in the studio right now writing really the strongest kind of protest songs of her life.” I was standing outside of my building this morning talking to my record label about a band I have from southern California, we were discussing how one of the music videos may not be able to be shown because “it pushes the walls out too much,” and I’m like, “That’s exactly what we should be looking at right now.”
NA: YOU SAID THAT YOU GREW UP IN A CONSERVATIVE FAMILY IN DETROIT AND WERE INFLUENCED BY THE STOOGES AND THEIR STYLE. TELL ME A LITTLE MORE ABOUT THAT. JV: I grew up in a house that was 800-1000 square feet; a little three bedroom bungalow. The bathroom, smaller than this area over here (points to area behind desk); one that seven people every morning had to get into before going to school or work, and every Sunday to go to church. Now that I look back, it was all that we knew. My brother still lives in the house; I go back and my daughter, who is not spoiled by any means, will say “you had the whole family live here ?” My thing was to get away from that, and I found it through music. Detroit was a melting pot. Everything from rebellion, to anger, to race. And when I was growing up, it wasn’t such a positive environment. I didn’t understand it as much when it happened, but when I grew up and went to college, I kind of grasped what was happening and watched the city fall apart. The voices of bands like the Stooges or MC5, or Motown, Gospel and Blues groups, provided a language to talk about what was going on and how the world needed change. It was a very interesting time because there was a message to the music. Compared to today, when it’s all pop music and the songs are fun and that... BNA: NOTHING REALLY TIMELESS . . . JV: And no criticism to the music, but it’s like who’s writing those songs? What I want to know is, where are the Bob Dylans? Who are writing songs about changing the world or equality or women’s rights? Where are those people? But that was the thing about growing up in Detroit, I fell in love with all types of music, from rock’n’roll to blues to jazz to soul and Motown. I learned more about what I felt later in life; as I look back on it, I know why I did certain things. I talked to other musicians and friends who grew up there, and in the end, we all had the same conclusion: in this kind of industrial environment, you either had to express yourself or be depressed. I was actually really quiet and a really shy kid, so a lot of these things I didn’t understand until I got older. (Laughs) I’m definitely not shy anymore.
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