A fashion-world rock star celebrates his South Coast Plaza store’s 10th anniversary

John Varvatos may not be a Rolling Stone, but like Jagger, he’s rocking the stage.

Varvatos, the founder behind a classic menswear line, which celebrated its South Coast Plaza store’s 10th anniversary this month, has fused rock ‘n’ roll with fashion, forming friendships and dressing musicians like Iggy Pop, Alice Cooper, Jimmy Page and Ziggy Marley — who have all been featured in his advertising campaigns.

The fashion designer credits his early obsession with the rock era as the catalyst for his interest in fashion.

“I wanted to be a rock star, but I didn’t have the talent,” said Varvatos, who on this day was dressed in black jeans, a biker jacket, beaded bracelets and a stitch knit scarf.

His expertise is crafting a masculine elegance with slim-cut suits that are a sophisticated mix of classic and modern. He also creates cashmere sweaters, one-button jackets, slim-fitting pants and shirts that can be paired with jackets for a casual-cool ensemble.

The passion for music developed when he shared a three-bedroom house in Detroit that couldn’t have been more than 1,000 square feet, if even that, with his parents and four siblings.

“I’d put my headphones on, and music transcended me out of there,” he said.

He knew he was never going to cut it as the leader of a band, so Varvatos decided that he was going to look like one instead.

He started working at a local men’s store while studying science at Eastern Michigan University.

Varvatos thought he was going to be a science teacher, but at 25, he became a partner at a men’s store, Fitzgerald’s Men’s Store in Michigan. It was one of the few stores that carried up-and-coming designer Ralph Lauren.

“I was pretty addicted to fashion at that point,” Varvatos said, noting that with his pay he could afford a leather jacket. “I got attracted to recognizing what the artists were wearing and wanted to be a part of it.”

At age 29, he went to study at the Fashion Institute of Technology in New York, where he trained in illustration, tailoring and pattern making.

Upon finishing, Varvatos headed menswear design at Calvin Klein and oversaw the launch of the CK brand. Then he joined Ralph Lauren, where he was head of design and created the Polo Jeans Co.

“I had the greatest job,” the married father of three said.

But the desire to launch his own line nagged at him.

He’d walk into luxury clothing stores in New York City and see that designers like Prada and Hugo Boss were exploding with collections created in black. They were different styles, he noted, but all in the same, cohesive image.

So at 43, Varvatos set out to develop his own brand. In 2000, he opened his first John Varvatos store, in New York’s SoHo.

There was immediate interest.

“When it comes to fashion and music, John is the real deal. And I always look cool in his stuff,” Iggy Pop said in a statement for Varvatos’ book, “Rock in Fashion.”

With two fashion labels — John Varvatos, a classic menswear line, and John Varvatos Star USA, a collection for the younger set — and a collaboration with Converse, the brand is sold worldwide.

Varvatos appreciates being at South Coast Plaza, which, he said, remains the benchmark for all high-end shopping centers.

The designer said consumers in Orange County have a more sophisticated style and tend to pre-shop online and then go to the store already knowing what they want. Millennials, he noted, don’t like clothing with logos. Varvatos said he has never put a visible logo on his shirts, other than a peace sign on collared shirts.

Varvatos appreciates his great success and likes to care for the less fortunate. For the past 15 years, he has reached out to the music and entertainment communities to support Stuart House, a center for sexually abused children at the Santa Monica-UCLA Medical Center Rape Treatment Center.

And the designer will never forget his roots, having opened a boutique in Detroit in March to help renew the depressed city. Among his first jobs, he said, was delivering papers and working at the Chrysler Factory. Thirty years later, Varvatos would be asked by the Detroit automaker to collaborate on a design for a Chrysler 300C limited edition that bears his name.

“I pinch myself,” Varvatos said with a laugh, before comparing his life story to that of a Grateful Dead album. “What a long strange trip it’s been.”