How Willy Chavarria’s working-class roots inspire his ‘menswear with a message’
The ‘political designer’ likes to use engaging, down-to-earth collections, with oversized coats and heavy-duty jeans, to raise awareness of what is important
The firefighters rush into the hotel lobby in full battle gear, laden with axes and oxygen canisters, but find no fire, no smoke, no nothing.
The false alarm leaves a half-dozen of this city’s bravest loitering amid the velvet-covered club chairs and in the direct sightline of Willy Chavarria.
The menswear designer, perched on the edge of a leather sofa, gazes admiringly at their scarred helmets, the oversized yellow-striped coats.
He eyes the elongated hem at the back of the heavy jackets where each man’s name is stamped. How had he missed that detail all these years?
Now he starts rhapsodising about the road crew he spotted just outside the hotel.
“They were wearing these super-weathered Carhartt jeans and neon safety jackets over super washed-out T-shirts,” Chavarria says.
Work wear is Chavarria’s inspiration and his passion; don’t be surprised to find versions of safety jackets or firefighter helmets in his next collection.
Chavarria is not out to transform a pair of trousers into an avant-garde art project.
Instead, he wants to elevate and celebrate what already exists. Not just the clothes, but the quietly heroic labourers, the many black and brown men, who wear them.