JOHN VARVATOS

I wasn't into pop music, even at a really young age.

I believe that if you think about what style means, you won't become a fashion victim.

When a man's suit fits, when the construction is beautiful, when the sewing and fabrics are there... in the end, you'll look the best in it.

When you do men's wear, it's less about thinking outside the box than about pushing the walls of the box outward. Men want to be evolutionary, not revolutionary.

I like someone who has a little bad boy in them, a little edge.

I shop a lot online... and just the ease of it makes a lot more sense.

Music and fashion have had a kind of incestuous relationship since the Fifties. It started with people like Elvis Presley and pop icons like James Dean. Then it exploded in the MTV days. Now, with the Internet, it's instantaneous.

Canada - they won't like me saying this, but it's really like it's a part of Michigan, that area.

When I think of artists that I would have loved to work with, it's Jimi Hendrix. And Steve McQueen. He's not a rock star, but he's kind of a rock star to me.

My vision is the ability to design clothes for a man who wants to create his own style and doesn't want to dress like he's in uniform, to look like the guy in the ad, or to feel like he has to put it together that way.

Guys out there have no sense of how their clothes should fit.

I loved the MC5 and the Stooges, but also, the British Invasion - the Kinks and the Yardbirds - and then Led Zeppelin, of course. Alice Cooper was one of my favorite bands.

Music has always been a dominant force in my life. As a young kid, it was a way for me to escape everyday life.

I always talk about a great-fitting pair of jeans. Girls are concerned about the way their butt looks in a pair of jeans, and I think a guy having a really great-fitting pair of jeans is just as important.

I collect vintage vinyl records.

The music alone wasn't enough. It was great, but when an artist had an amazing look - like the MC5, or the Stooges, or Alice Cooper - you really got sucked in. The wardrobe was so important. At a show, you were engrossed in the music, but you were also engrossed in everything from the haircuts to what they were wearing.

I spent a lot of years working for Ralph Lauren, and he had so many copycats, from Tommy Hilfiger to Abercrombie & Fitch to J.Crew.

I enjoy looking at old photos of some of my favorite rock icons, but also get inspired from the younger bands that are coming up and really creating their own style, their own image.

A lot of designers become hot, attend every party, and then you don't hear about them again.

I think the record industry has gotten to be more about labels wondering what the new single is rather than labels nurturing artists. It's gotten away from making a full album of music that someone would want to listen to all the way through.

The great thing about living in New York is the constant change of things. It inspires me to keep moving, push forward, question ideas.

Style is timeless. It transcends generations - it's enduring. If you're thinking about fashion, it's of the moment. And that doesn't mean that it's not important at times to embrace trends and that type of thing, but style is less about trends than it is about how you carry yourself.

In the early '70s, coming out of the '60s, it was very hippy or it was very uniform, like The Beatles all wearing the same suit. Into the '70s, it became much more about a personal style. You had the glam period, which was a lot of fun, and then you went into punk.

People will always have their opinions; I've come to learn whose matter.

When I started working in fashion, I didn't have money to buy photographs, so I'd Xerox pictures from magazines and put them in notebooks. When I'd start a collection, I'd sit with my old notebooks and look through them for inspiration.