John Varvatos

John Varvatos is an American menswear designer born in 1954 in Detroit, Michigan. He grew up in Allen Park, Michigan, and his family originally came from the village of Poulata on the island of Kefalonia, Greece. Varvatos attended Allen Park High School, and at the age of 16, he began selling menswear at a Hughes & Hatcher store in nearby Dearborn. He later attended Eastern Michigan University and the University of Michigan.

After graduating in 1980, Varvatos co-founded a menswear retailer called Fitzgerald's Men's Store in Grand Rapids, Michigan. He joined Polo Ralph Lauren in 1983 before moving to Calvin Klein in 1990, where he served as head of menswear design and oversaw the launch of the men's collection and the cK brand. During his time at Calvin Klein, Varvatos created boxer briefs, a hybrid of boxer shorts and briefs that was featured in a series of 1992 print advertisements starring Mark Wahlberg. In 1995, Varvatos returned to Ralph Lauren as head of menswear design across all Polo Ralph Lauren brands, where he created the Polo Jeans Company.

In late 1999, Varvatos established his own company and debuted his first clothing line in New York at the end of 2000. He opened a freestanding boutique in SoHo in September 2000, and his brand later expanded to include belts, handbags, footwear, eyewear, watches, and fragrances. His retail network included a boutique at 315 Bowery in the location that previously housed the music club CBGB. In 2001, Varvatos partnered with Converse to create a line of high-end sneakers, frequently designed in the style of High Top Chuck Taylor All-Stars. Following the end of that partnership, he began producing a "Bootleg" line in a similar style.

Varvatos credits an early interest in rock 'n' roll as the catalyst for his fashion career. His main collection ad campaigns, photographed by Danny Clinch, featured musicians and groups including Iggy Pop, Alice Cooper, Velvet Revolver, Chris Cornell, Dave Matthews, The Roots, and Green Day. In 2009, he launched New York Nights…Direct From the Bowery, a monthly radio show on SiriusXM's The Spectrum. He also served as a celebrity mentor on NBC's reality competition series Fashion Star in 2012, saw the release of a limited edition Chrysler 300 in his name in 2013, and partnered with Republic in 2014 to launch John Varvatos Records, signing the Zac Brown Band.

The John Varvatos company filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in May 2020. In 2021, Varvatos founded the brand OTD. In September 2023, he was appointed Chief Design Officer of Under Armour, a performance apparel company founded by Kevin Plank.