Willy Chavarria Is Everywhere. As He Should Be
Willy Chavarria’s capsule collection celebrating Kendrick Lamar’s halftime Super Bowl performance is decorated with a fitting Lamar lyric: Got my foot up on the gas, but somebody gotta do it.
At the beginning of 2025, Chavarria truly has his foot up on the gas.
Spending no time basking in the glory of being the CFDA’s 2024 menswear designer of the year, Chavarria has been more ubiquitous than ever, thrust onto the biggest stages in fashion and sports.
This high-profile Kendrick Lamar collaboration tops off a huge January for the brand. But before we dive into the details of Chavarria’s electric start to 2025, here’s the rundown of what he and Kendrick have cooked up.
Ahead of Kendrick Lamar’s halftime Super Bowl performance on February 10, a five-piece capsule collection with Kendrick’s pgLang creative agency and the NFL is arriving.
A practice jersey and shorts are cut in Chavarria’s signature oversized fit while a Japanese nylon bomber jacket, limited to only 100 pieces, each numbered, is destined to be a collector’s piece.
The drop launches on January 29 via pgLang, with proceeds helping individuals impacted by the fires in Lamar and Chavarria’s hometown of Los Angeles.
“Working with Kendrick is an important cultural moment for the two of us. We both have an unwavering voice when it comes to our people,” commented Chavarria on the upcoming capsule collection. And the designer is making a habit of creating important cultural moments.
On January 24, a lowrider — specifically, a classic Chevy Impala — rolled through the streets of Paris distributing limited-edition Willy Chavarria x adidas merch. A big moment in itself, but it signified something much larger: Willy Chavarria had arrived in Paris.
And the following day, he really left his mark on the French capital.
A debut Paris Fashion Week collection, Fall/Winter 2025 was Chavarria doing what he does best. There was social commentary (a Tinder collaboration responding to the 570+ anti-LGBTQI+ bills introduced globally in the past year), elevated reworkings of workwear, gloriously oversized tailoring, and unmissable odes to Latino and Chicano culture.
European audiences finally got the full Chavarria experience: Skillfully crafted clothes woven with pertinent messages. Chavarria was not pandering to this new audience, and why should he? His distinct perspective, especially as a Mexican-American designer, is integral to the brand’s success.
This year, Willy Chavarria celebrates its ten-year anniversary and, based on its high-profile start to 2025, the brand is doubling down on everything that’s made it so special across the last decade.
