in London. It’s really about finding something that you can put your own thumbprint on. I never really thought of them as celebrities. The unique thing about our campaigns is that, when you have a model or you have a celebrity, you generally pay big bucks. We don’t pay big bucks at all. We basically pay what we pay for a model or less. You know, you get Green Day, one of the biggest bands in the world, or Ringo Starr or Jimmy Page... most of them haven’t done any marketing at all but they love your clothes, they love the brand, and I think it shows. It shows that it’s not just some brand that got Jimmy Page or Alice Cooper and stuffed them in their ads, we have a connection there. From the clothes, to the music love, to the friendship. It’s always great because there’s not one artist that we’ve put in our ads that haven’t been great friends. If they weren’t great friends when we put them in the ad, we’re great friends today. Even somebody like KISS; I’ve read all these terrible things about them over the years, and they’re actually the greatest guys and great family men.
NA: WOULD YOU SAY THAT DETROIT IS KIND OF THE REBEL OF THE UNITED STATES? JV: You know, I don’t know if it is the rebel of the United States, but it’s definitely one of the cities that has a rebellious DNA. I also believe that in today’s world, it is the one city that is really fighting the fight in a big way. They have been beaten down in so many ways. Everyone moved to the suburbs. I’ve watched over the last 30 years people thinking that the city will come back, with new mayors and such...but I think right now it’s finally at a turning point. It reminds me of Brooklyn 20 years ago, or Berlin when the wall came down- where there is grit, and youth. A lot of young people are moving to Detroit, graduating from universities there because they’re intrigued by the culture and creating a new culture there as well. I find it interesting. I spent some days there in the summer and I met kids that were interning. I would say of the 50 kids that I really talked to, 35 of them were planning on moving back to Detroit. Some were from San Francisco, Seattle, New Mexico, but they were intrigued by the creation of a new culture, a rebirth. NA: ALMOST EVERY BRAND USES CELEBRITIES TO MARKET THEIR PRODUCT THESE DAYS. YOU ALMOST SEE IT USED MORE THAN MODELS. WHAT SEPARATES YOUR USE OF CELEBRITIES FROM WHAT EVERYONE ELSE IS DOING? JV: We never started as a brand that was about music or that had music connected to it. It was the musicians that came to us, that loved our clothes and wanted to do things with us. This made me think that we should do more. I found some- thing that really fit with the brand, that really stood out with the brand, and we owned it. These people have a place in history; they say something about the rebel spirit. Most of the artists that we have in our campaigns, they’re the bad boys (smirks); I love the bad boys. Pretty much every single one of them did something groundbreaking and completely different, and they also transcend generations. Iggy Pop, he’s more popular today than he was back then. He was not popular when I was a kid at all; they couldn’t even get a record deal. Now he’s an icon, playing at the Royal Albert Hall
NA: (LAUGHING) WHICH YOU WOULDN’T EXPECT! JV: No! No! Which I wouldn’t expect from most of the former drug addict rock friends of mine-they’re all sober today, they’re the best parents. Maybe it’s because they didn’t have the best parents, I don’t know what it is, but they’re all great parents. It’s amazing.
NA: IF YOU COULD GO BACK IN TIME AND PICK SOMEONE WHO IS NO LONGER ALIVE TO BE THE FACE OF YOUR NEXT
CAMPAIGN, WHO WOULD YOU PICK? JV: (Points to the poster behind him).
NA: HENDRIX? JV: (Nods head definitively).
NA: (SARCASTICALLY, KNOWING HE GETS THIS QUESTION OFTEN) WHAT ABOUT WOMENSWEAR? JV: I did it for a year and a half back in 2003-2004, when we were in Saks and Bergdorf—we actually had some nice success. But we had twenty people back then, we were small. Twenty people to do everything we do from production,
26 | Fashion Magazine At Marist
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