There are two commonly accepted ideas about New York Fashion Week: it is losing ground to its competitors and, among the designers who are loyal to it, Willy Chavarria has, for several seasons, put on the most successful show, the one that leaves its mark. The next one will take place on September 6, for the presentation of the spring-summer 2025 collections.
At the most recent, held in February in a candlelit Brooklyn warehouse, the female and male models were mostly black or Latino. They shared sportswear and evening wear, couture pieces and underwear. The whimsical proportions evoked Claude Montana’s 1980s, the rigor of tailoring was inspired by Mexican formal costumes of the 1930s, while the abundance of vintage English tweed finished blurring the references.
Sensitive virility, elegant streetwear, singular normality… Willy Chavarria’s delicate wardrobe has the power to resolve many contradictions. No doubt thanks to the stylistic maturity of this 57-year-old designer. Born to an Irish-American mother and a Mexican-American father, he grew up in an immigrant community in rural California. A graduate in graphic design from the Academy of Art University in San Francisco, he branched out into fashion, first working for an underpants brand. At the dawn of the 2000s, he was hired by Ralph Lauren, then made a career at Calvin Klein, which he left in 2024 to devote himself fully to the brand that bears his name and which he owns with his husband.
Launched in 2015, it is still small in size and relies on online commerce, but it has already earned Willy Chavarria the title of “men’s designer of the year” awarded by the Council of Fashion Designers of America (CFDA) in 2023. This award has rarely been given to people of Latin American origin, who are still not very present in the industry. Meet the man who intends to remedy this.
How would you describe your brand?
Its purpose is to celebrate those who wear it, to make them feel good. Someone who buys a t-shirt will appreciate its cut, its color, its fabric, but will also feel included in a larger project. Whether through fashion shows, Instagram posts, photos in magazines, the brand is there to make a fair voice heard, a message of equality.
How do your clothes reflect this state of mind?
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