Willy Chavarria (Q3689)
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Willy Chavarria is a fashion house from FMD.
| Language | Label | Description | Also known as |
|---|---|---|---|
| English | Willy Chavarria |
Willy Chavarria is a fashion house from FMD. |
Statements
Willy Chavarría took us to Wall street for his spring 2025 runway show. “It makes sense,” you might think, seeing that he had titled his collection América… but look closer, see that accent on the e? This show wasn’t aboutthatAmerica, but ratherourAmérica.Inside the cavernous show space hung the American flag, dramatically lit by spotlights. Out came the Urban Sierreño musical group Yahritza y Su Esencia, led by Yahritza Martinez, a teenager who first found acclaim on TikTok. Accompanied by a trio of mariachis, she began singing “Querida,” an iconic heartbreak anthem by one of Mexico and Latin America’s most beloved singers Juan Gabriel. In the song, he wishes for a lover to return—“Every moment of my life / I think of you more each day / Look at my loneliness / It doesn’t suit me well at all.” Within the context of the show it seemed like a plea for América to be more like the promised land everyone imagines it to be.The models walked out, in a single file, at breakneck speed, like they all had somewhere to be. What came across was a voluminous yet exact silhouette that was a callback to the uniforms of the American working class—hotel workers, concierges, construction people, foremen. And so there were balloon sleeves on classic zip-up jackets, tonal shirt and tie combos, crisp white short sleeve button-down shirts, cotton duck work fabric turned into tailored Victorian jackets with princess sleeves or baggy cargo skirts, and really good denim pieces in both classic blue and a wonderful distressed shade of mustard-y brown. Many of the looks were accessorized with a set of keys—and a little crucifix—dangling from a belt loop.“The inspiration was coming from movements like the United Farm Workers Movement, and thinking of those things along with the fact that we’re in a presidential election period,” Chavarría said. It was an especially powerful moment in the show when a group of models came out with accessories that nodded to the uniforms of farm laborers—wide brim straw hats, bandanas wrapped around their faces—flanked by the American flag in the background.In the last three seasons Chavarría has focused on showing his take on capital-M menswear, with formal collections full of exquisite tailoring, but this season’s showcase of quotidian style was no less regal and elevated. He simply has the range.After the last model walked, the music changed.
Surprise! Chavarría is collaborating with Adidas on a collection of ready-to-wear and sneakers inspired by the “Jabbar” style, created for Kareem Abdul Jabbar in 1978—the first sneaker ever created with an athlete—which is being re-released next year. Chavarría transformed the Jabbar into a pointy-toe style that is sure to betheefashion sneaker of the season, and the athlete’s name also featured on a number of garments, though there was also a jersey in red, green, black, and white, emblazoned with the word CHICANO across the chest. Other standouts included ruffled track jackets in the same Victorian silhouette as the ones presented in his main collection, worn with matching shorts in acid neon shades. Noah Lyles, the American track star who won both gold and bronze medals at the most recent Olympics closed the show in a pair of tiny track shorts and a big dose of attitude. “This [season] is all about power to the people,” Chavarría said. “It’s this country through the voice of the immigrants, and the people who make this motherfucker run.”
7 September 2024
Willy Chavarría took us to Wall street for his spring 2025 runway show. “It makes sense,” you might think, seeing that he had titled his collection América… but look closer, see that accent on the e? This show wasn’t aboutthatAmerica, but ratherourAmérica.Inside the cavernous show space hung the American flag, dramatically lit by spotlights. Out came the Urban Sierreño musical group Yahritza y Su Esencia, led by Yahritza Martinez, a teenager who first found acclaim on TikTok. Accompanied by a trio of mariachis, she began singing “Querida,” an iconic heartbreak anthem by one of Mexico and Latin America’s most beloved singers Juan Gabriel. In the song, he wishes for a lover to return—“Every moment of my life / I think of you more each day / Look at my loneliness / It doesn’t suit me well at all.” Within the context of the show it seemed like a plea for América to be more like the promised land everyone imagines it to be.The models walked out, in a single file, at breakneck speed, like they all had somewhere to be. What came across was a voluminous yet exact silhouette that was a callback to the uniforms of the American working class—hotel workers, concierges, construction people, foremen. And so there were balloon sleeves on classic zip-up jackets, tonal shirt and tie combos, crisp white short sleeve button-down shirts, cotton duck work fabric turned into tailored Victorian jackets with princess sleeves or baggy cargo skirts, and really good denim pieces in both classic blue and a wonderful distressed shade of mustard-y brown. Many of the looks were accessorized with a set of keys—and a little crucifix—dangling from a belt loop.“The inspiration was coming from movements like the United Farm Workers Movement, and thinking of those things along with the fact that we’re in a presidential election period,” Chavarría said. It was an especially powerful moment in the show when a group of models came out with accessories that nodded to the uniforms of farm laborers—wide brim straw hats, bandanas wrapped around their faces—flanked by the American flag in the background.In the last three seasons Chavarría has focused on showing his take on capital-M menswear, with formal collections full of exquisite tailoring, but this season’s showcase of quotidian style was no less regal and elevated. He simply has the range.After the last model walked, the music changed.
Surprise! Chavarría is collaborating with Adidas on a collection of ready-to-wear and sneakers inspired by the “Jabbar” style, created for Kareem Abdul Jabbar in 1978—the first sneaker ever created with an athlete—which is being re-released next year. Chavarría transformed the Jabbar into a pointy-toe style that is sure to betheefashion sneaker of the season, and the athlete’s name also featured on a number of garments, though there was also a jersey in red, green, black, and white, emblazoned with the word CHICANO across the chest. Other standouts included ruffled track jackets in the same Victorian silhouette as the ones presented in his main collection, worn with matching shorts in acid neon shades. Noah Lyles, the American track star who won both gold and bronze medals at the most recent Olympics closed the show in a pair of tiny track shorts and a big dose of attitude. “This [season] is all about power to the people,” Chavarría said. “It’s this country through the voice of the immigrants, and the people who make this motherfucker run.”
7 September 2024
Willy Chavarría’s fall collection was originally going to be presented exclusively through a short film. “The whole story is about love, protection and our need to protect each other,” he said at his Greenpoint studio a few days before the show. “It was hard for me to think about clothes because there are so many terrible things happening in the world,” he said. “I felt like the best way to tell this story was through an intimate film where you can see people, feel their emotions and tell a story that reflects how we feel in the moment.”Luckily, Chavarría decided he needed to stage a runway presentation after all. The film, titledSafe from Harm, opened the show, playing on a screen behind a long table covered in a white lace tablecloth and filled with altar and votive candles like an offering. Directed by Chavarría, it began with the model Paloma Elsesser walking down a hallway and entering a room where she embraces a man, played by Chachi, a friend, muse, and ever-present model in Chavarría’s shows. In quick succession there were scenes involving weightlifting, split screens and church. At the end the film evolved into something resembling the best parts of every Janet Jackson video.Then the real show started. For fall, Chavarría expanded his sartorial vocabulary, borrowing from the particular glamour of the 1980s British upper crust, especially through his use of luxe plaid and houndstooth wools which he contrasted with leather jackets and biker details. A star of the lineup was the houndstooth turtleneck shirt with the Chavarría logo embroidered at the chest, worn tucked into matching pleated trousers and topped with a leather take on a track jacket with a gold zipper and a tiny gold cross as a zipper pull. Or the way he executed his signature jacket with an extra-wide shoulder—this time in the softest beige wool—worn with a houndstooth pussy bow blouse whose ties extended over the jacket’s oversized pointed lapels dramatically to hit mid-thigh. Its model carried an extra-large clutch/document portfolio, part of a small collection of bags Chavarría is introducing this season. It was all very Executive Realness.A group of extra-large cable knit sweaters also added a dose of élan. A model wore an extra-long—it reached his knees—V-neck cable knit sweater over a white button down shirt with an exaggerated collar and a pair of wide-legged khakis. To further drive the message across, there was a second sweater draped across his shoulders.
Another model was styled classically, with a black cotton button down shirt tucked into dark wash jeans. He carried a structured shoulder bag on one shoulder, and wore a navy cable knit sweater tied just so around his neck. There was a certain perverseness in the way it captured the specific codes of prep dressing; something Chavarría experimented with last season. (You may have seen it on Billie Eilish at the Golden Globes.)Elsewhere, there were plenty of cool, wearable pieces; evidence of Chavarría’s recent foray into global wholesale. “It kind of changes the way the collection is designed, but it’s just a more grown up version of what it was eight years ago or whatever,” he said. “I’m still doing our classic silhouettes, but also being conscious of what can be more appealing to people beyond my small customer base.” Dilone’s sleek gray suit worn with an oversized overcoat was as classic tailoring as ever; also classic were the track suits, and the white button down shirts with subtle stripes in shades of blue or burgundy. Simple pieces to wear again and again.As the models reached the end of the runway, they arranged themselves behind the table with the candles, like an updated version of The Last Supper, with Chavarría himself taking the final position in the middle after the customary bow. After the applause died down and the models exited the runway, there was a sudden silence, and everyone remained in their seats, as if expecting an encore. Then, a second round of rapturous applause erupted. The reign of Willy Chavarría is really just getting started.
9 February 2024
If last season’s all-black collection was “a palate cleanser,” this season Willy Chavarria let it all down and said “let there be light!” The gilded doors to heaven opened—or in this case the gorgeous staircase inside the Woolworth Building—and out came the first model in a crisp white linen jacket with a wide peak lapel and sweeping extra-wide leg trousers, accessorized with a red wide brim hat and a giant red flower pinned to the lapel.“I think this is my most elevated collection yet,” he said backstage before the show. “Last season, I wanted to separate myself from a more street/sportswear identity, and I wanted to clear the air and show that I could do a full couture evening collection.” Having laid down how devastatingly glamorous his vision could be, he returned assured about just how big the Willy Chavarria label can be. “It’s not just sportswear, it’s not just eveningwear, it’s not just tailoring, it’s not just underwear—which I’m introducing this season—it’s all of those,” he said, “worn together.”Out came his take on college prep: The navy jacket was nipped at the waist and fit snugly; the khaki shorts, with their slightly dropped crotch, were a bit oversized and certainly too long; and the baby blue button-down underneath with its round collar was a little femme, proudly parading itself atop the blazer’s lapel. It was simply perverted in its proportions. The collegiate vibe also appeared on another one of Chavarria’s staples, the athletic jersey, which he did with a dramatic balloon sleeve, and the season’s graphic tee, emblazoned with the logo for an imaginary youth group “Grupo Nueva Visión Por Vida” (The New Vision for Life Group). The title of this collection was “New Life.”A red double-breasted jacket had a terrific light pink fade like it’d been in the sun for too long, and was paired with long red basketball shorts, while tank tops and underwear bore rips throughout. “There’s always a dark side to everything I do, and in this moment, we have a kind of vulnerability that we as a people have, that the youth have,” he said. “There’s a period of destruction, to show the kind of dystopia I think the younger generation is experiencing.” But then, in the spirit of matching everything with everything, a pair of destroyed basketball shorts was paired with an all-over sequin embroidered turtleneck, while a trenchcoat in a gorgeous shade of toffee in a Japanese fabric made of seaweed, was worn with nothing but gray boxer shorts underneath.
“We wanted to avoid quiet luxury at all costs,” he added. He could’ve been talking about the metallic pleated silk satin trousers worn with a black quasi-poet blouse tucked in and unbuttoned down to there, or the golden sequin trousers paired with a graphic t-shirt and a boxy denim jacket with gold monogrammed buttons. If you look closely you can see that the image on the shirt is that of Yuji, who is also the model wearing it, wrapped in a Mexican flag and holding a gold coin emblazoned with a “W, ” the same design that can be found on those buttons.The show ran a little long, but the sweeping couture-esque cape-dresses in red Japanese silk and white recycled polyester at the end took everyone’s breath away. Chavarria added, “It’s a very emotional collection for me because I found that as I was doing it that it touches on all these incredible influences in fashion throughout our Latinidad, so we see moments that are from the ’30s, from the ’40s, from the ’50s, ’60s, and also the future.”
14 September 2023
We were uptown at the Cooper Hewitt for Willy Chavarria’s new collection. The choice of venue was unsurprising, given that the designer won the institution’s National Design Award for Fashion Design last year—but that wasn’t the whole story. “Well, Willi Smith showed at the Cooper Hewitt,” Chavarria said a few days before the show at his Brooklyn studio. “He paved the way for so many people—I feel like he paved the way for me, and now it’s another Willy coming in. I like that idea.” He added, “but it’s also that beautiful, beautiful setting, and I want this collection to be taken very seriously.”Models of all genders (“everything is very non-binary”) descended the grand staircase at the museum looking absolutely beatific. The first look was an airy silk blouse with a pussy bow, tucked into Chavarria’s characteristically wide silk satin trousers. But it was the second look, a black trench coat with a nipped waist and a dramatically curved lapel collar that half-covered an oversized white gardenia pin and perfectly framed the model’s face that set the tone for the devastating beauty that followed.“Something I’ve been thinking about over the last few shows is really making sure that I’m learning and growing and not just delivering a new season,” Chavarria explained. “Not just thinking ‘okay, I got a new season, a new color palette,’ It’s more like, what is the climate of the world at this given moment?” Unsurprisingly the answer to that question led him to think about protection. “Kangaroo,” a song by the 1980s gothic dream pop band This Mortal Coil, set the emotional tone for the collection—although at the show, we were treated by a performance by Dorian Wood of “Piensa en Mi,” a classic bolero by Agustin Lara, accompanied by a string quartet. “It’s a story of love and protection,” he said. A few pieces recalled mourning attire of the late 19th century, especially the slim jacket-dresses with gathered empire waists, and the dress worn by Wood for their performance.The all-black collection was punctuated by shots of white—“we’re calling it gardenia white,” Chavarria said. White shirts were cut from a stiffer textured oxford cloth rather than lighter poplin. They had dramatic oversized bows that held their folds and ties. Italian velvet was cut into a double breasted jacket with a contrasting satin lapel—its shoulders extending past the natural shoulder line but in a gentler curved shape rather than the angular shapes of seasons past.
Another velvet jacket was lined in white satin which extended into the contrasting lapels. Chavarria also worked with recycled and tech fabrics, like on a long dress, whose design evolved from the traditional mechanic suit that has long been part of the design language here. It even had pockets on the back.Although the show had a decided eveningwear focus, there were traditional ready-to-wear pieces in the mix and they retained the romantic mood of the collection. An oversized polo shirt in black satin was tucked into jet-black Dickies (an ongoing collaboration). A black denim jacket had a delicate gather in the back, and a heavyweight work jacket and matching pants were paired with one of the oxford cloth shirts with exaggerated bows at the neck. Even nylon tracksuits looked just as formal as some of the gowns. One was worn open with a white scarf, and another was paired with an asymmetric trouser that was half pleated skirt-half pant. There was a sort of elegance in Chavarria’s refusal to fully embrace the rules of formal dressing.As the show was about to begin, Maria Nicanor, the museum’s director, welcomed us to the space. “This is the home of design excellence in America.”
16 February 2023
Willy Chavarria took us to church—the Marble Collegiate Church in Manhattan—for a show that mixed his signature larger-than-life silhouettes with exquisite tailoring. It opened with a beautiful song performed a cappella in Spanish by Dorian Wood about the way borders keep us separated, which could be read literally but Chavarria meant it more metaphorically. “The song is about the division in our world,” he explained backstage afterward. “If you noticed in the show, the actors were divided by ethnicity, and that was not only to represent the division that we are experiencing, but to show the solidarity within the culture. To show the strength of people when they’re unified.”First, a group of men wearing Pro Club’s signature extra-long T-shirts and Dickies—both part of a collaboration with Chavarria—walked out and placed bunches of roses on the altar. The first look was a navy tailored jacket with strong, wide shoulder pads that were situated ever so slightly beyond the natural line of the body, which worked to create a great amount of tension against the extra-long lapels that extended past the top of the torso. Its intersecting lines alluded to the Chi Ro symbol, also called a Christogram. The model, who wore a collared shirt and pleated wide-leg trousers as well, carried a cross at the center of his chest with one hand. A full khaki look, part of another collaboration with FB County, featured an extra-wide short-sleeve and wide-collar shirt tucked into high-waist, wide-leg trousers (though probably in Chavarria’s visual language these would qualify as simply “straight”).Chavarria, who recently won the National Design Award for Fashion Design, has always favored volume and extra-large silhouettes as a way to “reclaim [the] space that has been taken” from people of color, but there was a new level of softness and sensuality woven through his collection this time around. Though it was always played against more traditionally American masculine elements like varsity logo T-shirts—one was paired with below-the-knee silver sequined shorts—and football jerseys, which he turned into short, princess-sleeve tops and layered over short-sleeve button-down shirts and paired with a skirt. Men wearing robes and dresses has been normalized on menswear runways, but it was interesting to see how, in the context of a church, the silhouettes completely changed meaning and were imbued with a sensibility that hinted at both a uniform as well as tradition.
15 September 2022
“We’re going to open with a really hot guy,” began Willy Chavarria backstage before his fall 2022 show. “He’s justhot,” he continued, punching the word. “He drinks beer.” For someone whose work means so much to their community and to fashion at large, Chavarria hasn’t forgotten how to have fun.His fall 2022 collection, shown to strobe lights in New York’s Prince George ballroom, was titled “Uncut.” (When he said the name, he let out a devilish giggle.) It’s the sequel, in many ways, to spring 2022’s “Cut Deep,” but also the apotheosis of Chavarria’s long career in fashion. Not only has he proven himself to be a master of silhouette, tailoring wide-leg, pleated waist trousers to flatter all body types, but he’s also proven that he can uplift a community through fashion. His CCCC collective of Latinx and LGBTQIA artists has produced major campaigns and magazine photoshoots, and many of its members appeared on his runway last night modeling the clothes alongside other Chavarria friends. “The whole purpose,” the designer said, “is to represent, support, and uplift this community. To show what’s possible and what’s beautiful.”Beautiful, powerful, and sexy is how I’d describe Chavarria’s clothing. His hulking silhouettes, based on those gigantic trousers, oversized polos, classic denim jackets, and sensual cashmere and wool suits, is grounded in Latinx New York culture. He walked through his lineup explaining the characters: that aforementioned hot guy, the cholos, the queer kids, the construction workers, the club kids, the artists. Using custom wools from American Woolen Mills, latex, sequins, cashmere, and denim, Chavarria outfitted his models from skin to suit—it’s telling that many of his looks reveal their underpinnings, with tank tops pulled down to thighs, or in last season’s case, boxers peeking out from waistbands. Glistening bare chests are on display under 100% cashmere coats. Some pieces, like a “USA” t-shirt, a pair of W-pocket jeans, and a “So Hard” hoodie are nods, he said, to Latinx obsessions with American brands like American Eagle, True Religion, and Nike, now made by a Latinx hand. A collaboration with Dickies out a little later in the year, was teased in two black workwear looks with wide couture-like sleeves.Backstage, Chavarria was pep talking his models about how to really work it. He was coupling up the ones who got it with the ones who didn’t, encouraging them to mingle and practice menacing struts together.
The casting was impeccable, representing a wide range of ethnicities, bodies, and genders. “This is about land,” Chavarria said, “American land—all of America.” And all of America’s people, so often sidelined or appropriated by mainstream fashion. Outside after the show, a colleague I haven’t seen in two years because of COVID grabbed my hand. “That was so beautiful,” she said, “those are my people.” The models and the guests trailed out on a hot March evening and bounced to the afterparty. Chavarria has a lot to celebrate—on Monday the Metropolitan Museum of Art will unveil two of his spring 2022 looks as a part of its “In America: A Lexicon of Fashion” refresh. Yep, those XL trousers lookhoton mannequins, too. --
19 March 2022
Willy Chavarria’s show opened with church music and four shirtless men walking slowly down the runway, each in a pair of ultra-high, cinched-in, box-pleated chinos with the outsize proportions of ball skirts. With their hands tucked in the pockets and fabric swishing at their sides, they nearly evoked the grandeur and ceremony of a couture show. Then you noticed the satin boxers peeking out above their waistbands, not to mention the show’s setting: Astor Place Hairstylists, the 74-year-old subterranean barber shop that nearly closed during the pandemic.Some guys equate their barber visits with a religious experience, but Chavarria’s intention was to create a mood of purity and innocence, reflecting our deepest desires to see ourselves as more beautiful. “I wanted it to feel like couture, to feel regal,” he explained backstage. “And then to shift that against the toughness of New York.”By look five, the music changed and a model in a glossy, red-piped leather jacket was stomping out at a brisk clip. He was followed by guys in sheer organza shirts, boxy button-downs with XXXL camp collars, satin bombers, wide-leg jeans, and pooling trousers—all of which Chavarria described as his “most finely articulated” garments yet. The dark palette and streetwise vibes of years past were upgraded here with vivid, sensual hues and carefully draped silhouettes in elegant, couture-quality materials. In addition to his go-to Recyctex post-consumer waste textiles, Chavarria introduced glossy silk charmeuse and wool blends—ultra-fine, but also biodegradable, he pointed out.As far as the story behind the collection, Chavarria said he was thinking quite simply about positivity and uplift. “My past collections have all been really political, and it’s super important for me to send messages in my clothes,” he said. “But here, it was also important to not make a pointed political statement. I just wanted the beauty of the clothing and the models to speak for themselves.”And the clothes spoke just loudly enough. In Chavarria’s hands, even the most surprising pieces struck a balance of the familiar and not, of masculine and feminine, hard and soft. The results are both wearable and deeply memorable (though the opening chinos are admittedly not for the faint of heart!). Spring’s high-end materials and intensive patterns will likely require the clothes be made-to-order, another effort by Chavarria to reduce waste and hone his craft.
He’s still selling those wallet-friendly organic graphic tees for his young fans, but he’s eager to explore the possibilities of small-batch couture production. “It’s less fabric, more intimacy, less rigamarole,” he said. Plus, as the new vice present of men’s design at Calvin Klein, he’s bringing his vision to a much broader, global audience—one that likely includes millions of young Latinx shoppers who are thrilled to see Chavarria at the helm.
9 September 2021
We’ve all been looking for that sensational, chill-up-the-spine feeling from a digital fashion show—and the first, but hopefully not the last, I’ve gotten for fall 2021 comes courtesy of Willy Chavarria. As the designer’s look book loaded on my screen, I was struck by an absolute visceral thrill as I imagined encountering a single one of his models on the street. Against this winter’s sea of leggings, straight-leg jeans, and bad dad coats, the rotund pants and cloak-like jackets worn by Chavarria’s dudes would be a revelation.The collection’s punch comes courtesy of a focus on silhouette. While so many have fretted over making designer sweats or some kind of pseudo-functional Zoom-wear, Chavarria offers a new shape for one’s body and one’s life. Bulbous, hulking, and made of recycled fibers, it signals at once the aggression and sensitivity needed to make it through “these times.” Bold but tender, the shape redefines what is both powerful and masculine with Chavarria’s signature grace. Maybe the best way to sum it up is with the graphic tees with prints by Carlos Graciano, an artist who goes by Sad Papi: masculine and strong, but with the sweet demeanor of a heartthrob.
17 February 2021
A climate scientist living in Germany falls into a deep depression, one so impossible to shake he must return home to his family in America for solace. “It happens all the time,” says designer Willy Chavarria, relaying the true story of a friend. “It’s called environmental depression,” caused, of course, by the realization that humanity has ravaged our planet almost to the point of no return. (Chavarria estimates we’ve got about 11 years, tops, before it’s too late to reverse our impact.) Instead of throwing a literal funeral for Earth, which Extinction Rebellion did at London Fashion Week last season, Chavarria built out a funerary wardrobe for our last days. All black, with brooding shoulders and pooling pant hems that plump out the edges of the human body, the collection is a romantic, wistful eulogy for the beauty of Earth and its inhabitants.If that sounds like something with the potential to send wearers into their own environmental depression, take solace—it’s not. Instead, Chavarria has used the end of the world as the impetus to embark on a new journey for his brand and a new chapter in his design career. Firstly—and admirably—almost 100 percent of this collection is made from recycled materials in partnership with the recycling plant Recyctex. “It’s literally made from garbage!” Chavarria cheers as he holds up a boxy suit jacket that, with a slight nylon sheen and stiff shoulders, has both the casualness of workwear and the haughty pomp of ecclesiastical garb. All the tailoring is made from the same recycled fabric and carries a similar surreal sheen. Outerwear is also made from recycled nylon and cut in supersize silhouettes with removable linings that allow for multi-purpose use. The layering-up or stripping away of garments proves crucial to Chavarria’s vision this season, too. Every piece in his Greenpoint studio interlocks with another, the best instance being a boxy work shirt with lapels structured to hide inside a blazer, making the shirt appear like a well-behaving scarf.As always, Chavarria’s shapes are pulled from cholo, chicano, and pachuco culture, oversized or cropped to convey the attitude of his forebears and peers. The best here is the “borracho” pant: two pleats slung on the right hip, one dripping from the left and the fly gently askew, an item that might seem dreamt up in a whisky daze, but actually lends a dramatic bit of swagger to the wearer.
Elsewhere, he’s turned mourning gowns into sporty nylon frocks for men or women and incorporated pieces from his Dirty Willy Denim collection of organic cotton jeans—which are included in a look book that proudly kicks off with unzipped flys and the related coiffure of that region—into the main line. Sure, clothes can’t save us from environmental destructionorenvironmental depression, but Chavarria’s latest collection provides a fitting, fabulous wardrobe for our fucked-up times.
24 January 2020
Woolmark Prize nominee (and Copenhagen resident) Willy Chavarria returned to the runway circuit for Spring 2020, having skipped the Fall 2019 season. “I mean...summer, scheduling, it was the right time to get back. But I also think it doesn’t necessarily need to be a show, season after season.”He’s a fringe figure in New York City fashion, and he’s benefitted from keeping an arm’s-length attitude as his profile has grown. With Spring, he went for a “new take” on minimalism, but one that pulled from a transcontinental party scene in the ’90s—particularly a nightclub he used to run in San Francisco called The Love Garage, which would see an influx of a more New York–centric clientele and wardrobe.“Everything became a little slicker and darker.” Part one of this collection featured long jackets in black satin, mesh shirts in black, generously cut jeans in extra-processed washes, and a top that graphically spelled out “Breaking News,” befitting of...well, the hyper-evolution of the 24-hour news cycle from Chavarria’s chosen timeframe right up to yesterday’s latest Mueller hearing. The second portion of his lineup saw a collaboration with K-Swiss, which Chavarria called an “aspirational brand as a kid growing up in California,” and here the mood turned to late-’80s-workout-video neons and layering. These pieces will sell, but the first half was stronger.Chavarria’s most notable strength rests in his calibration of queerness and masculinity (especially so when that calibration involves his Chicano background). Yet there is something resolutely femme, too, in the afterburn. He mentioned that gender fluidity doesn’t have to be androgynous or genderless. These clothes had that code in place; satin dressing-room bombers over bare, muscled chests, or cropped boxy shirts as tops, worn with the aforementioned denim.In some ways, you could see hints of what the men wear on the current hit TV showPose, though that program takes place a few years earlier than the ’90s. But the look, and its progression, absolutely resonates now. Chavarria is a smart, worldly creative who knows how to be all-inclusive while still carving out his own distinct M.O.; it all feels very true.
25 July 2019
Willy Chavarria inlays a well-attuned sense for, and manner of, social commentary in his clothes. For Spring, he said his wellspring was “guys from the year 2000 or late ’90s, from East L.A. or the Bronx. You can see both coasts. It’s this messaging that’s a continuation of last season, centered around immigration rights.”An immediate take on the turbulent times this country is facing when it comes to immigration could be seen where Chavarria flipped the U.S. flag upside down on a sweater, or inverted the wordAmericaintermittently as a graphic motif. This was done most appealingly on a pale yellow oversize workwear coat with Velcro tabbing up the closure. But there were further clues. The oversize hang of a T-shirt and the slouch to a trouser, XL sleeves on button-down jackets, and even another tee with the Twin Towers printed across the front all seemed to loosely embody a frustrated spirit. Edgy but with a bit of disconsolation, too. A tough thing to do in clothes that, indeed, often looked good.Additionally: Chavarria, a Copenhagen resident, collaborated with the Danish soccer brand Hummel this season. The athleticwear retained the designer’s touch through bigger shapes, eschewing the standard fit one might expect of such garb. And there was a deeper intent. “We’re sponsoring a soccer organization for immigrant guys—asylum seekers and refugees. They’ll wear it first, and then deliveries will happen in six months,” explained Chavarria. He then noted that this collab was also part of a move to expand the reach of his growing label—“offering things that can be sold at Barneys and Foot Locker.” This seemed like the most discreetly pointed commentary of all. It’s not a high-low move, it’s not a diffusion move, but rather, it’s a move that challenges the expectations and the paradigms of the establishment. And that feels very right for right now, and very on brand for Chavarria.
10 July 2018
In just a year, Willy Chavarria has arced from aggro streetwear to leather bar–meets–lowrider culture eveningwear to, now, a much more somber sort of daywear. His Fall collection and show were not exactly tender—save for a sweet-faced baby who made the finale lap in the arms of his father—but there was definitely a sensitive broodiness hanging in the room. “The message is really a reflection of . . . realness,” said Chavarria afterward. “To be conscious of emotions and the human state, which to me is sadness.” But if that came across as too dismal, he added: “At the same time, it’s to show us as vulnerable. As beautiful.”Despite the heavy inspiration, which resulted in models with faux-tears dappling their tattooed cheeks, there was actually a lightness to the greatcoats and jackets on display. A long hooded denim trench, almost lab-like in its verticality and relative sterility, was a collection highlight, as was another long, and what appeared to be boiled, wool officer’s coat with a double seaming of buttons down the front.While print-heavy sweaters have been seen often on runways for a long time, Chavarria achieved something more effective—and something kind of new, or new at least for right now—in his minimalism and shapeliness. Citing his earlier efforts in workwear, shirt jackets and fabric-loaded trousers struck a chord that fit his emotive mission, especially so when styled against bare chests and bare abs. They demonstrated an interplay of less-is-more meets volume-as-protection, a pensive notion, each end of which hinted at ways to retreat from the world as it currently stands. This was a step inward, but forward.
5 February 2018
Willy Chavarria’s Spring collection was called “Cruising.” And, it was presented at the Eagle, the New York City gay bar where leather reigns, located on the far western edge of Chelsea (predating, as it happens, a time when its particular area became world famous for bottle-service-y nightlife; the Eagle essentially backs up against the old Bungalow 8, Cain, Marquee, et al.). It opened in 1970, so earlier in the day, Chavarria and his team burned incense to mask the smell of nearly 50 years of revelry.“Cruising,” obviously, had a direct link to its venue and what goes down inside of it. But, equally, it alluded to lowrider culture, which was Chavarria nodding to his Chicano upbringing in the 1980s. Together, leather and lowrider manifested as something the designer described as “romantic—it’s my youth. I didn’t really know leather culture but I knewofit.”The result was actually kind of seductive at times; like the grimy wings of the Eagle, parts of Chavarria’s collection flew high. There was a must-buy, loosely broken leather jacket—part fireman’s, part moto—styled with leather fingerless gloves. Best in show. Tracksuiting had satin inlays, the pants of which were cropped and widened (shaping, throughout, was generous). A collaboration with the artist and Chavarria’s childhood friend Brian Calvin led to painted pieces depicting the icons of vice, but twisted in message. “Coors Light” became “Cares Fight;” Marlboro Reds became “American Mayhem.” Elsewhere, some of the motif-work went overboard. See: T-shirts with the phrase “How Can I Tell My Mom and Dad” wrapped around an image of Jesus on the cross. Chavarria is still relatively new to designing—this wasn’t a 10 out of 10, but it will be interesting, in any case, to see how he evolves his sui generis nature.
13 July 2017