John Varvatos Offers Spring With an Urban Take
• John Varvatos has moved beyond the traditional seasonal approach to presenting his collections. With his new brand, On This Day, the designer is embracing more see now, buy now offerings as a way to meet the demands of today’s consumer.
So the spring collection that is now in his two stores in New York and Los Angeles, offers up an assortment of men’s and womenswear that blends urban sensibility with elements of French workwear.
That is evident in a jacket whose shape is reminiscent of French workwear, but created in a shadow plaid print in a sustainable fabric.
In much of the collection, Varvatos said, the fabrics are created from sustainable materials and even recycled plastic bottles, but “they feel incredible and not like a synthetic at all,” he said.
Other key pieces in the spring line include plaid and check track jackets and pants; paint-splattered ponchos in a linen cotton blend with a fishtail back; a polyester-filled nylon vest and bomber with a lacquered coating, and a MA-1 bomber in a floral camouflage pattern in a linen blend. There is also an assortment of brushed terry knits made from organic cotton.
After exiting his namesake brand following its bankruptcy and sale to a private equity firm, Varvatos created On This Day, a dual-gender brand with a sophisticated street aesthetic that is more casual than his former label. The brand now has two retail stores in SoHo and on Sunset in L. A. that are performing well, he said. “We’re off to a good start,” Varvatos said. The designer said he’s currently in the process of looking for additional locations to set down additional retail roots — in Miami, Las Vegas, Chicago, San Francisco and another location in Southern California. He’s also seeking potential storefronts in Toronto and London.
“We’re not going to open them all at once, but we’d like to add two stores this fall along with two pop-ups, and then another two with two pop-ups in the spring,” he said.
Before the L. A. store opened, OTD had operated a pop- up for five months in the market and it helped establish a client base for the brand when its permanent location opened. And that’s a strategy he hopes to replicate in other cities. “If we can’t find the exact location we want, we’ll do a pop- up to get into the market,” he said. —