Willy Chavarria Shows Us the Real América

Every Willy Chavarria collection is bigger, bolder, and more ambitious than the last. It wouldn’t be extreme to say the designer has one of the most iconoclastic aesthetics and directional visions in the current New York fashion landscape. For Chavarria’s spring 2025 collection, he decided to put an even bigger focus on making workwear uniforms and the everyday into exciting, beautiful contradictions.

Titled América, the classic Chavarria silhouettes were contorted into worker uniforms. Sculptural trousers were worn with a stack of keys on the belt loop. Wide-sleeve tops had subtly embroidered words above the pocket, mechanic-style. Cargo pants morphed into business-casual trousers worn with skinny ties and hulking blazers.

“It’s about the importance of democracy, and how democracy is at stake,” Chavarria said of the collection during an interview a few days before the show. “My thought process was very much about, ‘What is America? What is it that makes America?’ And I started realizing that the people who really built the country are its backbone.”

Chavarria toned down his maximalist wide proportions for spring 2025 in favor of those reworked, labor-coded uniforms, allowing the details like white mid calf socks paired with oxfords, or t-shirts with the sleeves rolled up and bandanas worn over the models’ faces with sun hats. “In my last couple of seasons, I take different periods of time that have inspired me and put them together,” he said. This season, he looked directly to the front lines: the United Farm Workers movement, taking inspiration from their early ’70s styles. “I’m inspired by the more uniform looks that people wear while working at a gas station or a hardware store or AT&T.”

After the slew of uniform looks had their turn on the runway, the music changed to an aggressive breathy track and out came the big surprise of the night: an entire Adidas collaboration, including neon-ruffle short sets with shoulder pads, logo jerseys, sports bras, and hoodies.

Still, a Willy Chavarria runway show wouldn’t feel complete without a little element of performance. The show was held in a cavernous warehouse-like venue on Wall Street, where a massive American flag hung prominently and every seat came with a copy of the United States Constitution, courtesy of the ACLU. The show opened with a live mariachi band and singer in traditional Mexican garb; Michael Kors and Tracee Ellis Ross took in the scene from the front row. “This collection is one that was thought of from a more commercial standpoint,” Chavarria said. “I was also thinking very much about what is salable and what will work globally, just from an economic perspective. It's what I think a big American designer, like a Tommy Hilfiger or a Calvin Klein or a Ralph Lauren would do, but through a Willy lens.”