Willy Chavarria Is Redefining American Fashion

The solar had gone down on the primary day of New York Style Week — which additionally occurred to be the primary day of the entire vogue season — when Willy Chavarria invited everybody to a drive-in on the far reaches of Greenpoint, Brooklyn.

OK, not precisely a drive-in; extra like a walk-in, however you get the thought. An outdated warehouse was bathed in a purple gentle, and there have been roses on each chair. Julia Fox, sporting a lavish white gown, Vermeer hat and never a lot else, chatted to Amanda Lepore and Sam Smith. Then a display screen got here down on a black velvet curtain and a short film began to play. It starred a bunch of characters numerous in race, dimension and sexual orientation, dwelling in a single outdated home, sharing angst and pleasure, tears and dumbbells and garments. On the finish, that they had a dance celebration.

It was much less a film than a temper. One which hasn’t been seen in vogue in fairly a very long time. One which set the scene for the present that got here subsequent. One which mentioned sitting on the sidelines wasn’t going to be sufficient any extra; rise up and do one thing. Even when it’s simply making garments — so long as they aren’t simply garments. That has been the mantra for lengthy sufficient, set to the tune of whispering cashmere.

Sufficient with discretion and conserving to oneself. Politics is again in vogue. Not as a polemic or a slogan, however as a glance. Typically it’s a must to design the world you need to see.

Mr. Chavarria did, with a set that crossed genres and genders: black tie tuxedos, Havana prairie energy fits, Victorian biker jackets.

He paired farmer plaids with card shark jackets, sculpted leg o’ mutton sleeves into black leathers and made pussy bows so lengthy they brushed the higher thighs. He reshaped the hourglass by scrapping the corset and pairing four-pleat pants that swished generously across the legs with broad, peak-shouldered jackets that clasped the waist like a hug, in what has change into his signature silhouette. He tossed cowboy hats over all of it and pinned on supersize rosettes in a Sherlock Holmes houndstooth. Carrying the garments was his multitude of film characters (after which some) come to life.

Mr. Chavarria referred to as the gathering “Protected From Hurt,” suggesting that safety must be an inalienable proper. That’s a reasonably radical thought within the present setting. He spent years because the senior vice president for design at Calvin Klein; he understands the myths of Americana and the monoculture (additionally, easy methods to assemble a garment with grace and polish). He’s simply out to blow it up.

In that, Mr. Chavarria is likely one of the founding fathers of a brand new wave of New York designers reinventing American model, which has been flopping round in quest of a path since lengthy earlier than Covid-19 threw everybody off beam. Nominally, he makes males’s put on — he gained the Council of Fashion Designers of America men’s wear award in November — however that’s not all it’s. The purpose will not be sticking to the outdated classes, however erasing them. Billie Eilish has made his work virtually her default uniform this awards season.

On the finish, the fashions gathered round a protracted desk, strewed with candles and lined in lace, in a “Final Supper” tableau. Values had been placed on the menu, and within the wardrobe. Everybody can dine on that, in the event that they dare.