John Varvatos is a men’s-wear designer with deep roots in honest American upscale fashion. And if the advertising campaigns for his eponymous label are any indication, he’s also interested in, and inspired by, the outré musicians of the 1970s and 1980s. He even purchased the site of New York’s seminally stinky Bowery rock cave CBGBs and turned it into his flagship store. But while we love leather dusters and cashmere henleys as much as any member of ZZ Top, it is Mr. Varvatos’s connection to our mutual birthplace—the Motor City—that prompted this interview. John has just joined what is, in our opinion, one of the most illustrious coteries in fashion history: he has leant his name and design skills to a special-edition vehicle.

He’s making over another Detroit product, the gangster lean Chrysler 300. (O.K., technically it’s actually produced in Brampton, Ontario, Canada.) Since this writer is possessed by the myriad ties between the automotive industry and art, politics, film, fashion, and fabulousness, I felt morally obligated to meet up with John in Manhattan’s West Village and talk about Poltrona Frau seat leather, Downriver Bowling alleys, and the relative merits of the various designer editions of the 1976 Lincoln Continental Mark IV. Highlights from our conversation are below.

__Brett Berk:__I read that you’re from Allen Park. Being a Jewish Detroiter, my people are from the west side, so the only time I was ever in Allen Park was when my mom was on the local game show Bowling for Dollars in the mid-1970s. Do you remember that program?

*John Varvatos:*Of course. You were at the Thunderbird Lanes.

The Chrysler 300 is assembled in Brampton, Ontario, Canada. This next question is a two-parter. Being a Detroiter, what is your feeling about Canada?

I’m a big fan of Canada. When I was a kid, I used to ride my bike from Allen Park to downtown Detroit—it was only about 10 or 15 minutes—and then ride over the Ambassador Bridge into Windsor. And I spent some summers hanging out at Point Pelee Park. [The southernmost point in Canada!] And I had a girlfriend in Toronto for a couple years when I was in college, so I used to make that drive from Ann Arbor, five hours each way, on the weekends. Canada—they won’t like me saying this, but it’s really like it’s a part of Michigan, that area.

Part two: Given that the Brampton assembly line was once used by the now defunct American Motors Corporation (AMC) to build their universally derided Gremlin compact car, do you feel any special affinity, or did you seek any inspiration from, the classic 1972 Levi’s Edition of the AMC Gremlin?

I remember that car. It had these polyester, fake-denim seats. With rivets. And the Levi’s decal on the back. One of my roommates—I had this house in college, and one of my roommates actually had that car. But, no, no, no. I wasn’t inspired by that.

This next one is multiple choice: Which was your favorite designer edition of the 1976 Lincoln Continental Mark IV: Bill Blass, Cartier, Emilio Pucci, or Givenchy?

I remember the Blass one because I talked about it today. I don’t remember the others, so I couldn’t really comment. But again, it was trim packages, where we changed much more on the car than that. I don’t think there was much inspiration from those cars. Maybe from the Cordoba, with the Corinthian leather.

Not even the Emilio Pucci edition, with the moon-dust finish?

I think I had some moon dust once when I was in college!

I know you’re having fun with this, but this was originally done for the New York Auto Show. It wasn’t really done as a production car. So we wanted to push it, and have some more fun, have some more freedom, because you don’t want to just have another interior color or something.

The last question is the most difficult. When I took a painting class in college, they had us pick a favorite painter and paint something in that person’s style. I want you to pick a contemporary designer you like, and describe what the materials and color and trim would look like if they designed it.

I would do it as Margiela—Martin Margiela. And it’s probably going to be a white car, but he’s going to paint it over another color. And the interior is going to be white as well, but there’s going to be another color that he’s painted the upholstery over. So that would be a very organic car, in that it looks like a painter actually painted the car—if you know his work and you know his stores.

It would definitely not be able to be warranteed—there’s no way it could take any warrantee, and we could not be responsible for any crocking on your clothes or on your leather jacket. But I find that his subtleness and his attention to little details—in keeping with but very different from what I do, in keeping with looking at things in a very simple way. I think it’s not over-designing. It’s spending a lot of time on the little details, instead of doing, like, a Broadway show and trying to do something that’s a big billboard. It’s really about the subtleties that people with a refined eye and sophistication appreciate. And are more into the refinement of what they wear, and how that fits into their own personality and DNA, versus putting together a uniform that somebody else created for them.

Well, the car looks very rock ’n’ roll, John.

Thanks. That’s definitely part of what we’re going for. Ideally, it’ll come loaded up with some good Detroit music.