“It always starts in the heart, it very much does. I never know what it’s going to be until much later. I’m not like a designer who says it’s going to be this or that, and then I go and make it. I always start out with music and feeling and books and you know, the creative process evolves all the way through,” said Willy Chavarria backstage.
The designer throughout his career for his namesake label has taken the fashion world through a journey of “Latinidad” — sharing his cultural roots that derive from Mexico combined with the Chicano culture. His show followers have visited locales such as New York City’s famed gay leather bar, The Eagle; underground barber shops; a church; the Smithsonian Cooper Hewitt Museum, and this season to one of the city’s most historic landmark buildings — the iconic Woolworth building in downtown Manhattan.
This season was a culmination of his past collections, but in an elevated way — “last season was like a palate cleanser and I wanted to clear the air of any notion that I was less than like a fine apparel designer,” said Chavarria backstage, as last season’s lineup consisted of an all-black cast of elegant looks.
Fast forward to his spring lineup — a celebration of color and youthful energy in the sphere of “Latinidad,” with a roaring soundtrack of notable Latino songs such as “Si nos Dejan” and “Besame Mucho.” The opening look — a crisp white linen jacket with peak lapels and extra wide-leg trousers with an oversized red rose on the lapel and paired with a red “ranchero” style hat (a collaboration piece done in partnership with Tequila Don Julio) — descended the staircase in the main lobby. The lineup ranged from looks that included tailoring that transported you to Cuban nightclubs in the ’40s, with exaggerated shoulder proportions, to cool activewear pieces from the ’90s, “like you’re a worker from Circuit City,” said Chavarria jokingly. Tailored workwear is always part of the brand’s design ethos, and this season there were hints of college prep mixed with whispers of East L.A.
There was an “eleganza-extravaganza” portion featuring looks such as plunging torso-revealing silk shirts paired with high-waisted metallic silk satin pleated trousers with uber wide-leg openings and a silver sequined long-sleeve shirt paired with destroyed sweat shorts with rusting effects, that captivated the audience members — Chavarria experimented with Italian sequins this season.
The brand unveiled a new category — underwear — his version, briefs and tanks all hand-destroyed, dyed and overdosed to be given a heavily used and abused look, seen in all-white and gray. Collaborations were noticeably absent this season but the designer did reveal that he is launching an upcoming collab with retailer Pacsun, called “Big Willie.”
“I want to make sure that I can offer like $40 T-shirts and you know, I don’t want to be completely exclusive. So I started this new line with PacSun and it’s gonna be the more approachable version of this, less runway,” said the designer exclusively to WWD.
“This was a very personal collection for me. It’s very, very personal and I see a lot of my family and my own personal history as a designer in it,” said Chavarria.
