Fashion for the People: Willy Chavarria @willychavarrianewyork In an age of social responsibility, brands are held more liable for the choices they make in casting, quality and in sustainability. At the forefront of that movement, has been Willy Chavarria a Mexican-American designer, who uses his eponymous brand to showcase the real America, casting a spotlight on the thriving inequalities and racism faced by real people. Chavarria does this by ensuring that each of his collections addresses current social issues, and by enforcing an exclusive BIPOC lineup of models for his shows, most of which are cast straight from the street with the intention of bringing people “out from the dark stages in the world and really inhabitting spaces as a human.” Chavarria, a queer, mixed-race man grew up in an immigrant farming region of California, where his parents, an Irish American mother, and a Mexican-American father were only able to meet after the civil rights movement consolidated their 2 schools, integrating two racially homogeneous cities. This importantly foreshadows, the environment of which inspired Chavarria to go on to create the socio-politically concerned brand that he has today. His collections are a love letter to 90s Chicano street culture, in tandem with influences from gay leather bars and workwear. The signature element of his clothing is voluminous silhouettes which he uses to portray a statement of reclamation. He describes his collections as “A statement about the area of space that we take up,” adding, “I think that it’s really nice when brown people or people of colour are able to say, ‘Yeah, this is my space.’”’ In his latest spring-summer collection at NYFW, Chavarria upheld these signature silhouettes introducing an air of 1950s elegance in some pieces, while in contrast paying homage to his hometown with streetwear looks that donned varsity-style logos with Fresno or Sacramento. The show was held in the NY Marble Collegiate Church, where Chavarria divided models in the show by ethnicity so as to represent the division faced in the world but also the solidarity within the culture, “showing the strength of people when they are unified.”