What do Paloma Elsesser, Mahmood, Carlos Nazario and Dilone all have in common? Tweed jackets and tassel loafers designed by Willy Chavarria for his Fall/Winter campaign. Shot by Peruvian photographer Diego Bendezu, all that is holy coalesces into a defiant crusade of love, human goodness and ferocious intimacy, entirely outfitted by Chavarria’s playful silhouettes. Chavarria, the 2023 and 2024 CFDA Menswear Designer of the Year winner, shapes his most recent campaign around the inherent love and protection that permeates the human experienceーone we must not simply acknowledge, but cultivate. 

Chavarria’s collections are daring, as intense as they are imitable, but they’re also smart. They reprimand the monoculture infecting our country today, and they cleverly suspend critiques on unabashed Americana atop scenes fit for religious zealots. The doctrine sets the stage for the design, and amidst settings of sacrosanctity, Chavarria sprinkles in his own skepticism. He sermonizes iconoclasm; it’s ironic and it’s brilliant. 

The thing about Chavarria’s projects are that his characters stand as eminent as his clothes, if not more. They embody the facets of fashion he so diligently strives to inspire: inclusivity, radicalism, diversity, ingenuity. The FW24 campaign features a remarkable cast of prolific creatives: model and body positivity activist Paloma Elsesser, Italian singer-songwriter Mahmood, fashion editor and stylist Carlos Nazario (you can thank him for Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez’s iconic Vanity Fair cover in a sculpted white power suit), American model Dilone, and more. 

Black leather and open collars recall Chavarria’s clean-cut edge, while sweeping houndstooth trenches and oversized tracksuits (FYI: tracksuits aren’t just for the track anymore) emphasize his appreciation for exaggerated statement pieces and dramatic layering. He pulls us into his world of undressed intimacy, all the while retaining the emotional depth his collections mean to evoke. Through wide-leg trousers and structured suits, Chavarria presents a brazen display of freethinking nihilism. 

Chavarria’s collections inhabit a cinematic vibe, frequently blending art’s fundamental sentimentality with prevailing political themes. They communicate the compelling stories of the human experience and not only reveal but relate to the one million and one intricacies that infiltrate daily life. And in an admirable gesture of bonne foiーor putting their money where their mouth is, to put it bluntlyーthe brand often collaborates with organizations advocating for social justice, a palpable effort to truly uplift the underrepresented communities their collections aim to represent. It only makes sense that the campaign’s photographer, Diego Bendezu, shares the explorative sensibilities of Chavarria’s design. Hailing from Peru, Diego Bendezu often draws from his South American heritage when snapping images. Bendezu’s desire to contribute to the representation of Latin American culture in the arts and fashion manifests through his pictorial studies on the intersections between the immigrant experience and family. 

Chavarria credits his more biographical elements as inspiration for the stylistic structures of his pieces: his Mexican-American heritage, the beauty of his surrounding cultures, the day-to-day vignettes he is keen to witness. Each line drives wearers to recognize the goodness imbued in our daily lives. His pieces do not intend to distance from reality, but rather to remind us of the love and protection that exists within it.