Supermodel Jimmy

[Shadecatcher]

A better look than some of the fashion disasters of the 80s and 90s but would rather he concentrated on making some original music instead of being a clothes horse with a ridiculous trout pout! I'm not holding my breath!

"Trout pout" ha ha ha.

[aen27]

Found this fantastic picture in Vogue Italia of him. It's a fun articale too.

http://www.vogue.it/...tm_content=uomo

[lightandshade]

^ Indeed a gorgeous photo and fun article, thanks for sharing!

I didn't know about the connection with Shane MacGowan - interesting. It was hilarious trying to follow his train of thought in this article. Gotta admire his brutal honesty re: the "stupid cloaks with runes" and Jimmy "not getting fat or anything".

[mstork]

^ Indeed a gorgeous photo and fun article, thanks for sharing!

I didn't know about the connection with Shane MacGowan - interesting. It was hilarious trying to follow his train of thought in this article. Gotta admire his brutal honesty re: the "stupid cloaks with runes" and Jimmy "not getting fat or anything".

God bless him, it sounds like Shane thinks Page bought Boleskine directly from Crowley himself!

[Disco Duck]

^ Indeed a gorgeous photo and fun article, thanks for sharing!

I didn't know about the connection with Shane MacGowan - interesting. It was hilarious trying to follow his train of thought in this article. Gotta admire his brutal honesty re: the "stupid cloaks with runes" and Jimmy "not getting fat or anything".

Did Page wear black leather pants during his Zep days as MacGowan claims? He didn't in any of the photos or concert film I've seen?

[aen27]

Did Page wear black leather pants during his Zep days as MacGowan claims? He didn't in any of the photos or concert film I've seen?

Unless he is referring to these, I only thought of his black leather jacket with the little chain that he wears in the early photo shoots, Supershow and later in "These Arms of Mine" promo.

[Andrzej]

Q&A: Gary Clark Jr. on Modeling With Jimmy Page, Keeping Up With Stevie Wonder

http://www.rollingstone.com/music/blogs/thread-count/gary-clark-jr-on-modeling-and-keeping-up-with-stevie-wonder-20130208

[MJC455]

Few behind the scenes of jimmy & Gary shots

http://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.10151435769758194.510549.120546178193&type=1&l=79189832ac

[Cookie0024]

I've collected all of the Jimmy Page photos from the session that I could find, dumping them here.

[april_lynn]

^^

Wow thank you Cookie! It's really nice to have them all in one spot!

[Cookie0024]

^^

Wow thank you Cookie! It's really nice to have them all in one spot!

No worries, the last photo with Jimmy pointing was difficult to find since it wasn't on the John Varvatos Facebook page.

[Janvier]

The April 2013 issue of Clash magazine carries an interview with John Varvatos, read an excerpt here: http://www.clashmusic.com/features/wearing-and-tearing-john-varvatos

It seems like your musical tastes have come full circle with your fashion career, considering Jimmy Page is one of the models in your latest advertising campaign.

Yeah! Jimmy was [a big influence] both musically with Zeppelin and his whole style, even today. How I originally met Jimmy was him contacting me wanting to meet up when he came to New York because he had bought some boots and some different things from us and he really wanted to meet. He came to me not knowing that I was a music junkie, but he came to me for the clothes and I originally connected with him for both the music and his style, and a friendship began through that. It’s one of those special things; something that I’m lucky that I get to do through my job is I get to merge both of my passions, the fashion and the music thing together. So there is a personal connection; there’s a very warm mutual feeling between the two of us. When I asked him to do the campaign, it wasn’t a complicated thing for him to figure out, and it wasn’t about a big paycheck or anything like that, it was just something that he felt like he wanted to do.

[truth and beauty]

Unless he is referring to these, I only thought of his black leather jacket with the little chain that he wears in the early photo shoots, Supershow and later in "These Arms of Mine" promo.

I've only just noticed - on seeing this post - that he's made a mistake there : Friends NOT being the first track, but the second...

Almost as annoying as that bit in Argo where the needle goes down on the first track of an Atlantic LP and the song is "Levee Breaks" ..

really unsettling, that one...

[jb126]

Almost as annoying as that bit in Argo where the needle goes down on the first track of an Atlantic LP and the song is "Levee Breaks" ..

really unsettling, that one...

I was sure another site member would notice this :-) I wasn't annoyed - I'd say I was amused.

[kenog]

An excerpt from John Varvatos' new book where he talks about LZ's outfits.

The Telegraph

08 November 2013

John Varvatos: music, fashion and me For designer John Varvatos, music and fashion have always been intertwined. In an extract from his new book of rock photographs, he explains how his taste in music evolved, and how it continues to influence his work

I wouldn’t be where I am today if not for the music I discovered growing up in Detroit in the late 1960s and 1970s.

I came of age in Motor City, surrounded by the sounds - and look - of rock & roll. From the soul/pop of Motown to such local rockers as the Stooges, MC5, Ted Nugent, Grand Funk Railroad and Bob Seger, and touring bands like the Who and Led Zeppelin, the music enveloped me.

Looking back at those days, I realise I wouldn’t have become a fashion designer if not for the music in my life. There are traces of it in the way I dress and the look of my menswear collections over the past dozen years.

My first musical memories date to The Ed Sullivan Show, when I was nine or ten. That’s where I discovered the British Invasion, which gave me my initial perspective on fashion as well: it was unique and novel, just like the music. The Beatles’ matching outfits weren’t very exciting, but I loved the Cuban-heeled boots they wore. The Stones seemed like the bad boys, refusing to dress alike. They - and their clothes - had attitude.

Around the same time, I got hooked on the radio. We had both the Detroit and Canadian stations. Right across the border, ten minutes away in Windsor, Ontario, there was a music director on the AM radio station CKLW named Rosalie Trombley. She turned me on to a lot of great stuff. Some of my favorites were “You Really Got Me” by the Kinks and “I Can See for Miles” by the Who. I bought those bands’ records for the music, but I quickly noticed how cool the Kinks and the Who looked as well as sounded. All the artists I liked had a unique style.

I briefly played in a band when I was in junior high. My cousin Tim got a drum kit and started a group called the Golden Sound and asked me to join. We did a wedding and some school gigs, but we weren’t any good. I sang and played trumpet. We did “Touch Me” by the Doors because it had a horn in it. My uncle Gus was our manager and he thought we were going to hit the big time, but that was short-lived. I realised I didn’t have the voice or chops to make it.

Yet somehow I knew that rock & roll was going to remain an important part of my life.

I’ve seen literally thousands of concerts since my teens. Even so, some of those early ones, like the MC5 gigs, still stand out. The band was an absolute powerhouse. They moved around onstage like dervishes, and each guy dazzled me with his own look. Decades later, I found out that the band’s girlfriends designed and created much of their stage wear.

Led Zeppelin was another band whose musical and style influences are with me to this day. I first saw Zeppelin on June 6, 1972, at Cobo Arena, in downtown Detroit. That was life changing. The concert was the opening night of Zeppelin’s North American tour - and I was in the second balcony. I took my little portable tape recorder with me (no one searched you back then), and I still have the cassette that documented that explosive set.

Led Zeppelin’s clothing made a huge impact on me. Like the Stooges and MC5, their stage wear had a cool rock & roll vibe - both masculine and feminine rolled into one. The guys in Led Zeppelin wore flared pants and scarves. Robert Plant sometimes sported an unbuttoned, way-too-small girl’s blouse. Jimmy Page’s most spectacular outfit was his dragon suit, which he had custom made in both a black and a white version, with the fire-breathing creature and ZoSo and zodiac symbols embroidered on the jacket and pant leg. Seeing it made me more conscious of how important rock was to fashion - and vice versa. Of course, I didn’t have a clue that I’d be a fashion designer one day, but it got me thinking about just what fashion represented to the music: the sounds stayed with you, and so did the look; the visuals and sonics became intertwined.

Though I’d managed to see the Stooges live, it was their photographs on album covers that really struck a chord with me. On their 1969 self-titled debut, the tight shot of the band showed them wearing narrow-cut leather racing jackets. Their next record, 1970’s Funhouse, was it - the personification of rock & roll. You opened the cover to find a gatefold photo of the band sprawled out on a Persian rug wearing tight jeans with flares and simple T-shirts, with sneakers or Beatle boots. Guitarist Ron Asheton had on a black leather jacket over his cartoon-graphic T. This was the album, and this was the look, for me. It stayed with me and remains relevant today - simple clothes that fit the guys really well, showing off their physiques. Some 40 years after Funhouse, when Iggy participated in my company’s advertising campaign wearing one of my suits, I told him how much he and the band had influenced my fashion sense. He just laughed.

At 16, in order to feed my own rock-fashion habit, I got a job at Hughes and Hatcher, a men’s store in Dearborn, Michigan. There I worked my way up from the layaway department to sales clerk. After I graduated college with a degree in education, I didn’t have a plan but tried to find my way while continuing to work in fashion retail.

In 1980, I partnered in a unique new store called Fitzgerald’s in Grand Rapids. We carried Ralph Lauren before it became a household name. The management at Ralph Lauren/Polo took a liking to me, so when they were looking for a regional sales manager based in Chicago, I jumped at the opportunity. Within a year and a half, I was asked to move to New York City to become vice president of sales and merchandising. It was in my day-to-day contact with the design team that I realized I wanted to become a designer.

At 29, I set out on a new chapter in my life. While continuing to work at Ralph Lauren, I pushed myself into every fashion meeting and fitting possible, and I took design classes. I soaked up every bit of information that would help me become a designer.

In 1990, I landed at Calvin Klein as president of men’s design. Calvin gave me a chance to do something a bit closer to my personal sense of style. We started the Calvin Klein Collection for men, and we launched the CK brand to create something more accessible in terms of design and price. Over the next four years, we rebuilt the Calvin Klein underwear brand into a huge business, we incorporated the jeans line into the CK brand, and we significantly grew the Calvin Klein Collection for men.

In 1995, I was offered the opportunity to head up men’s design at Ralph Lauren, which I did until I started my own brand in 2000. Since then, my love of rock & roll and my love of fashion have merged. There wasn’t that much rock & roll in the brand when I started out, but there was some element in the line every season that had roots in my youth. Initially, I didn’t realise music would become such an important part of my company. But my passion for it is endless. If I don’t have music playing, I don’t work well. For me, music has always been about the excitement of discovery, and it remains that way. Then I discovered that musicians loved my clothes. So in 2005, I began collaborating with artists in our marketing campaigns, starting with Ryan Adams, then Joe Perry, Chris Cornell, and, in fall 2006, my hometown hero Iggy Pop. Iggy was the first of my Detroit icons to come on board.

My new book, Rock in Fashion - my design notebook - demonstrates how rock & roll has influenced fashion, but its major focus is on the styles and artists who have inspired me in terms of their music and image. Looking at photographs not only of musicians like Jimi Hendrix, the Rolling Stones, MC5, and the Who from the late 1960s but also of current artists such as Kings of Leon, Jack White, the Strokes, the Libertines, and Interpol, you’ll see timeless images, regardless of whether they were taken fifty years ago or today. You’ll recognize how the Stooges and MC5 influenced the punk movement and notice elements of glam that still exist. Every generation takes from what came before, then makes it their own by embracing and respecting it, and then taking it someplace further.

As the Stones say, “It’s only rock & roll, but I like it!”

This is an edited extract from John Varvatos: Rock in Fashion by John Varvatos and Holly George-Warren (HarperDesign), (RRP £40), is available to order from Telegraph Books at £36 + £1.35p&p. Call 0844 871 1514 or visit books.telegraph.co.uk