No queer revolution without Willy Chavarria: how he became a New York icon

Willy Chavarria is one of the hottest names in New York City. This year, he has once again been nominated for the prestigious CFDA Fashion Awards in the Menswear Designer of The Year category, and although he also won the award last year, he has a chance to win again.

The media says that Chavarria is redefining fashion in the US and creating a new American style. A magazine called him the leader of the queer revolution that is taking place on the runways. He is also favored by famous artists. His homeboy shirt was worn by Madonna. Billie Eilish drowned in oversized clothes. Colman Domingo dazzled at the last Met Gala in a black and white culottes suit and a spectacular cape coat, often seen on Chavarria. The ensemble was completed with large floral decorations made of fabrics – another characteristic element of the New Yorker's design.

The fashion house, opened in 2015, is becoming a symbol of our times not only for aesthetic reasons. The designer, who has Latin blood in his veins, is an ideologist, artist, and activist.

A Fashion Story of Latin Resistance

The 57-year-old's latest collection is a positive patriotic manifesto. It shows a diverse, multicultural, and multi-identity world. Its inhabitants surround themselves with mutual respect and live in symbiosis, which was not easy to achieve. Chavarria recalls the conflicts of the past.

The spring 2025 collection is titled “America,” referring to the continent's Spanish name. A large US flag hung over the runway, and the Latin band Yahritza y Su Esencia played underneath. Chavarria once again drew on the style of the Chicano community, a group of people from the United States who have roots in Mexico. The proud term used to be discriminatory. White neighbors used it to express contempt for Latinos. The political and social power of Chicanas and Chicanos, who fought for equal rights and due respect, grew in the 1960s and 1970s. Today, the word “Chicano” is written in Gothic script on the clothes of Chavarria, a proud descendant of Mexicans who is enjoying global success.

The designer also referenced zoot suits —baggy, high-waisted trousers that tapered slightly at the ankle, and long jackets with large shoulders and lapels. They were first worn by African Americans, including jazz musicians in the 1940s, and later by Mexicans. The outfits recalled the Zoot Suit Riots that broke out in the United States in 1943. During World War II, wool was rationed and the production of loose suits was banned. The industry was supposed to focus on supporting the military and sewing uniforms. However, Latino youth did not want to give up their distinctive attire, which provoked aggression among white soldiers. Some of them attacked Latinos dressed in zoot suits.

There were more important signs and messages at the show. Willy Chavarria closed the show in a large tank top emblazoned with the logo of the ACLU – American Civil Liberties Union, an organization involved in the defense of civil rights and freedoms. One of his inspirations was the uniforms of members of the United Farm Workers, a labor union for agricultural workers.

Feminized masculinism

The America collection features many references to North American archetypes of masculinity, such as the cowboy figure, the baseball player, or the boy next door dressed in a loose, stylish tracksuit. However, Chavarri's masculinity is always feminized.

The puffed sleeves and shoulder puffs of sportswear, hip-hop, and rock clothes draw attention to the costumes of New York operagoers in the 19th-century series The Gilded Age. The origins of men's wide sleeves with narrow cuffs can be traced to the Spanish court in the 17th century.

Feminized masculinity was demonstrated by Leonardo Brito, among others. The beautifully built dancer wore a flowing white skirt with a sensual slit on the catwalk. Its cut merged with boxing shorts. The styling was complemented by a blue training sweatshirt with a white rose motif – this is an example of Willy's cooperation ego with Adidas.

Dara Allen, a transgender woman, and Interview magazine's fashion editor, walked the runway in a loose suit, a striped shirt with an exaggerated white collar, and a black tie. She also had a short orange-lemon haircut. She looked like a child of Patrick Bateman in American Psycho and Annie Lennox in the video for Sweet Dreams, which opens with a tomboy look.

Ample silhouettes, exaggerated shoulders and collars, and giant textile flowers symbolize the appropriation of space by people from groups exposed to discrimination and marginalization.

Christian-queer reconciliation

The spring 2018 show took place in the dark gay club Eagle, where people have sex. The Cruising collection was of course influenced by the Chicano style, as well as Christianity. Around the cross printed on the T-shirt appeared the inscription: “How do I tell my mom and dad” – it was about gays coming out and reconciling it with religious roots.

The designer grew up in the Mexican diaspora in California, in a community strongly tied to Catholicism whose hierarchy has often attacked queer people.

He lived in the San Joaquin Valley. He was raised by hard-working, low-income parents. His mother's roots are in Ireland and his father's in Mexico. The renowned designer comes from a working-class background, and his fashion is connected to spiritual life. The designer did not reject Christianity. The spring-summer 2023 collection was shown in a Protestant temple – Marble Collegiate Church. The show began with the laying of red roses on the altar, and skater and model Chachi Maserati held a wooden cross in his hand.

The culmination of the search for religious-queer symbiosis is the fall-winter 2024 collection. It is accompanied by the film Safe From Harm directed by the designer. The people playing in it create a very diverse community taking part in Chavarria's shows. On the screen we see, among others, the curvy supermodel Paloma Elsesser, the non-binary person creating poetry Kai Isaiah Jamal, known from the covers of Brazilian Vogue, Zaya Guarani, raised in the Amazon, the beautiful transgender model Amara Gisele and the Italian rapper Mahmood.

People of very different origins, identities, and looks express love, desire, aggression, and fear in the film. On the catwalks and in the New Yorker's films we can see anger, suffering, and sadness. Chavarria does not show a utopian and suffering-free world, but a difficult, yet beautiful coexistence of diverse people, including those who at first glance do not fit the progressive vision of the world. Everyone meets in “Safe From Harm” for a symbolic funeral. The ceremony begins in the church – a joint dance to electronic music. The designer shows the unifying power of queerness and love, which should be the essence of every faith and religion. He does not condemn, reject, or cancel anyone.

During the New York show, models, models and models gathered at a common table referring to the Christian Last Supper. Willy Chavarria once again united people who created a very diverse social mosaic. This image will one day circulate in fashion history books. It will illustrate a chapter describing the most important events in fashion in the first half of the 21st century.