THE IMPORTANCE OF BEING WILLY CHAVARRIA: EVERYTHING YOU NEED TO KNOW AHEAD OF HIS PARISIAN DEBUT

Willy Chavarria at his LA atelier. Image: Paul Yem for The LA Times.

The recent news of American designer Willy Chavarria’s upcoming debut at Paris Fashion Week Men’s AW25 has been received with enthusiasm by the industry. Chavarria has had an outstanding professional trajectory, including positions as a designer at Ralph Lauren and Calvin Klein, and accolades such as the grant of the CDFA Vogue Fashion fund, the National Design Award Cooper Hewitt Smithsonian and the International Woolmark Prize. He is also known for delivering a relevant, authentic message, in line with his eponymous brand, his personality and his roots.

One of the looks from Willy Chavarria's KANGAROO FW23 collection. Image: Laura S. Fuchs for Hypebeast.

To understand Willy Chavarria’s creative universe, we must understand who he is. Born in 1967 in Fresno, California, USA, his father is of Mexican ascent, his mother is Irish-American, and his paternal grandparents were first generation Mexican immigrants and agricultural workers on different farms all over the state of California. During his formative years, Chavarria had direct contact with the fashion subcultures that Mexicans in the United States created: the chicanos, the pachucos and the cholos. All these influences are still very present on his work, even more than 10 years after founding his own brand. Additionally, his experiences growing up as a queer teenager in a conservative Mexican community were crucial in the creation of his character as a person and his aesthetics as a designer.

Adidas Superstar x Willy Chavarria.

Thus, Chavarria’s self-concept as a creative in fashion comes from the intersection of the two main components of his identity: his Mexican background and his queerness. Garments designed by Chavarria – on his brand, his work with Calvin Klein and his collaborations with Adidas and Dickies, among others – are generally genderless and work on a wide variety of body shapes. The use of politically charged iconography on his designs is frequent, as he did with the logo of the American Civil Liberties Union, or by putting the iconic USA logo upside down as a statement that, to him, the United States – a country that Chavarria deeply loves and is proud of representing – is bottom side-up, in more ways than one.

T-shirt with the now legendary upside down USA logo by Willy Chavarria.

Willy Chavarria also makes a point in elevating the community that forms his design team. He has enthusiastically declared on multiple occasions that friends he once hired for his brand are now celebrated as models, or that they are now working as creative directors for a-list celebrities like Madonna. Chavarria usually includes live performances by Mexican artists on his runway shows, such as Yahritza y Su Esencia, which performed a rendition of some classic of regional music legend Juan Gabriel during the presentation of his SS25 collection América in New York. Without a doubt, the show for his Tarántula collection for the next season in Paris on January 24th, 2025, will include similar elements that are now a staple to his brand.

Promotional picture for Tarantula, Willy Chavarria's upcoming FW25 collection. Image: Willy Chavarria's official Instagram (@willychavarrianewyork).

In moments like the one we’re living in, where totalitarian ideologies that aim to delete any crumb of difference are becoming stronger all over the world, voices like Willy Chavarria’s are more important than ever. His perspective is necessary to enrich the conversation inside of an industry that is intrinsically, like all other creative industries, diverse. After all is said and done, it’s not futile to remember that division, hate and discrimination, rather than give, erode and degrade the context of global fashion.