I cannot summarize Chavarria’s significance to New York’s fashion community any more succinctly than he does himself when I ask him to introduce himself in his own words: “My name is Willy Chavarria, I design clothes, and I tell stories that make people feel good about each other.”
How do you like to set the mood when you're working?
I think the mood of the room varies. It can go from, like, loud, pumping, sweaty house music, or it could be some strings, or it could be silence. It all just depends on what we've got going on and how intense our ideas are.
Today we had some house music because we were doing photoshoots and having some fun. Tomorrow we'll probably be listening to some Mozart.
Do you have a favorite garment that you’ve designed?
Oh man, that is hard because I love so many of the styles that we've created.
It's really hard to choose one, but sometimes we'll make something and then somebody we love will wear it and bring the garment to life, and then the garment takes on a new meaning.
Kendrick [Lamar] recently wore the white tracksuit, and suddenly we've been calling it the Kendrick tracksuit because he made such a statement wearing that in his most recent video [for “Not Like Us.”]
The garments are all beautiful and we love them, but it's not until they're worn, whether it's on the runway or in an editorial or fit in-house, that they come to life.
