Navigate to your preferred streamer and flip on the song Tarantula by This Mortal Coil – it’s where the title of the collection originates, after all. “It's a song that I listened to as a teenager, and it has stayed with me my whole life,” I’m told.
The designer expanded by offering how a tarantula is, in a vacuum, a very gentle creature that has been unjustly vilified. Soft to the touch, honest and true, it’s a creature that faces much hatred and fear by outside forces for little reason other than blind distrust. If the metaphor sounds familiar vis à vis current societal tugs-of-war, that would be entirely intentional on the part of the brand.
“I feel like this is symbolic of how so many of us feel right now. [We’re] bringing in all of these people who are queer, trans, people of color… all of these people who are othered and really canonizing them as saints in a beautiful church. I love it,” Chavarria said.
The closing of the show brought this theme into full-view. The final portion of the soundtrack played back the recently-viral clip of Bishop Mariann Edgar Budde confronting President Donald J. Trump, softly encouraging him to remember the people in the US – immigrants, queer people, religious minorities, and beyond – that may be scared of his newfound executive power. A moment of solidarity from the world over, and a somber-sweet reminder of everything that the Willy Chavarria brand stands for.
As for what the rest of Chavarria’s Parisian experience may entail?
“My husband David and my dog Chester will be here, so I’m really looking forward to walking around Paris and doing nothing,” he said. Perhaps the perfect plan after a long haul, and a moment well deserved before diving back in.
