“I live in New York City, street level, corner apartment, big windows. There’s barely any separation between the city outside and the world inside my home. I think there. I watch people. I watch them rush to work while I make my coffee. I watch them meet on corners. Enter the restaurant across the street. Kiss goodbye. Argue. Jump in and out of taxis. I watch people fall in love. I watch them fall apart. All of us under the same sun, under the same moon, sharing the same universe, breathing the same oxygen, smelling the same garbage. I feel connected to all of them. I’ve seen a woman collapse in the middle of a crosswalk. A heart attack. Strangers ran in. I ran in. We waited together for the ambulance.” – Willy Chavarria
It has been one year since Willy Chavarria made his Paris Fashion Week debut after more than a decade with his eponymous brand. What once started as an underground label from New York has found itself as the most highly anticipated show on calendar. Willy is not an overnight success; his community has been building up globally. What resonates with a niche to a wide audience is that he imagines more for the broken fashion system, offering what was once the essence of fashion and style: human creativity. And this season, all the telenovela glamour and drama that make up Eterno.
Among the runway set up as a sound stage were diverse famous faces from Usher, Thundercat to Sebastian Yatra. Opening the show was a projected exchange of Grindr messages before the runway unveiled as a busy crosswalk where music, fashion, and identity collided. Feid, Mon Laferte, Lunay, Mahmood, Santos Bravos, Lil Mr. E, and Latin Mafia all performed as waves of models moved in opposite directions including Julia Fox, Romeo Beckham, Farida Khelfa, and Goldie. Just like on a busy street, everything stopped to let a wave of la-z-boy two-wheelers roll by. It was important to see the pieces on different people, from different backgrounds as more than a vibe check. Romeo, Farida, Goldie, and Mahmood in an aviator jacket, wore everything just as naturally as Santos Bravos dancing and singing.
The big surprise wasn’t the celebrities or spectacle. Known for his exaggerated volumes, he instead introduced straight, slim-fit trousers reminiscent of the 50s and proportionate tailoring, sharp blazers and coats stripped of last season’s candy colored brocades. The austerity was deliberate before texture crept in with leopard fabrics, python prints, deep down inside I almost felt left out until I got some flannel nods to the (and my) West Coast, evoking a person caught between eras, cities, and selves.
With a large collection numbering around a hundred looks, it was broken down to three acts focusing on everyday workwear before moving to more street-driven with bomber jackets, hoodies, adidas Originals tracksuits, and sportswear, before closing with fine tailoring.
There was no explicit political message, but we were reminded of everyday people, the community around us. If you came to Paris before everyone was stuck to their phones, you would see people staring at you. On the metro, on the street, at the café corners, that’s what people used to do and you would see all different types of people in all different types of clothes that weren’t all coming from the same places. People watching has become a lost art, but Chavarria sees people.
It can be hard to crack Paris’ famously fickle fashion critic crowd. One big improvement and space to continue to work at is a focus on high-quality fabric; this season the leathers and denim were his strongest yet. Willy Chavarria’s pieces are fun, they can also be moody, sad, sexy, boring, elegant, what’s important is to take people seriously, to never ridicule people through garments. He gets people, and allows them their dignity, something that unfortunately is becoming rarer. At the end of the show, projected on the screen was a dedication to “All of us that believe in the Power of Love”.
Check out the collection below:
