In search of inspiration for Fall 15, John Varvatos looked out his window, over Central Park, and thought of a favorite Richard Avedon portrait of Bob Dylan, shot there in 1965. "He looks like a young man does today," said Varvatos. "He doesn t look like the Beatles; he looks contemporary."
Hence, an extended riff on Dylan set on a runway littered with humus-tanged leaves supposed to re-create Poet s Walk. Look 9 apart, that riff was actually pretty loose: There were leopard-skin bags, but not hats; those were Slash-style toppers, including one that boldly matched the broad gray check of the belted coat below it. And although there weren t many of them, there were still some of the Spinal Tap-esque, virtual-vasectomy leather trousers that are one of Varvatos great loves.
More broadly, the show was like a mostly so-so concept album blessed with a couple of nailed-on hits. A short, small-pocketed brown suede jacket was all the better for this season s button restraint. A shaggy-hemmed shearling overcoat was just what people used to look for at Camden Market but could never find. If you re slim and like a biker worn over a suit, see look 38. Despite a slightly odd ticket pocket at the right breast and another "What s that for?" extra pocket at the left, a khaki three-piece suit with (excellent) front-man boots looked convincingly Rock God. For night there was berry and black peak-lapelled, fitted suiting sprinkled with beading, set off by polo-neck shirts, some fastened with poppers. There was also a black three-piece, peppered with gray splotches. This was solid fare for the constituency of bedroom rock stars—and more than a few real ones—that Varvatos has so assiduously made his own. Altering the lineup too radically would be pointless: As Dylan himself once sang, "You re gonna have to serve somebody."
