Connect with us

Lifestyle

Willy Chavarria Is a Unisex Designer Making Undergarments His Way

Published

on

Willy Chavarria Is a Unisex Designer Making Undergarments His Way

One of the first things designers aim for when they achieve a bit of commercial success is to get into underwear. As long as there are M.B.A.s, the Calvin Klein business model will be a subject of study, and it is the rare designer who does not, at some point, figure out that while dressing stars and making glamorous runway clothes are great for one’s image, the margins are in skivvies.

Consider Willy Chavarria. Almost a decade after starting his namesake label in 2015, Mr. Chavarria, a former senior vice president of design at Calvin Klein, became a freshly anointed fashion star in his mid-50s by winning back-to-back men’s wear Designer of the Year awards from the Council of Fashion Designers of America in 2023 and 2024.

Late last year, he introduced the first line of men’s undergarments for his brand. (Although he is considered a men’s wear designer, Mr. Chavarria, a red-carpet go-to for rule-bending celebrities like Colman Domingo, Billie Eilish and Kendrick Lamar, terms his clothes unisex.) Being an inveterate provocateur, he called the line Big Willy.

Not content with that, Mr. Chavarria, 57, tested consumer tolerance this month by releasing a new capsule collection that includes tank tops, boxer briefs and jockstraps (along with sweatshirts, shorts and socks) that were manipulated to look sweat-stained, torn and otherwise distressed.

The collection is meant to both engage and provoke, said Mr. Chavarria, who produced it in collaboration with Latino Fan Club, a pornography studio with a specialized target market and what may be politely called a D.I.Y. aesthetic. Founded in 1985 by Dana Bryan, a photographer who went by the pseudonym Brian Brennan, the studio, now defunct, offered a visual alternative to the glossy, sanitized iconography then dominating gay pornography.

Advertisement

With amateur styling and models almost certainly cast from the streets of New York, Latino Fan Club existed to celebrate raw sexuality at a time when AIDS had largely sent Eros underground. To whatever extent possible via an exploitative medium, it exalted gay Latinx sexuality, said Vince Aletti, a former photography critic for The New Yorker and The Village Voice, who has written about Latino Fan Club.

“It was a relief from all the white boy porn we’d been seeing for years,” Mr. Aletti said.

Mr. Chavarria, who called Latino Fan Club “iconic,” described the studio’s disruptive approach to pornography as mirroring the way he thought about his fashion label.

“In our line of work, there’s got to be more meaning behind the pretty pictures,” said the designer, who is making his debut at men’s fashion week in Paris on Friday. “Everything we do has to have some sort of force behind it, to break through the oppressive aspects of the world. Otherwise, why do it?”

For Jess Cuevas, an art director in Los Angeles who serves as Mr. Chavarria’s muse and right-hand man, flouting the norms of the luxury goods trade is part of the label’s aesthetic mission.

Advertisement

“I love the idea that luxury can also be so gritty and gross,” Mr. Cuevas said. And, indeed, the installations Mr. Cuevas designed for the Dover Street Market stores where the collection is sold meticulously replicate the raunchy atmospherics of the XXX bookstores that inspired them.

“To me, so much luxury is vulgar,” said Mr. Cuevas, who was a creative force behind Madonna’s last tour. “What I love is taking luxury and deliberately bringing it to this vulgar place.”

In that sense, Mr. Chavarria’s latest foray into undergarments deviates from the Calvin Klein formula, even as that brand has also toyed with the visual conventions of pornography sites like OnlyFans in its recent underwear ads starring the actor Jeremy Allen White. That is not to suggest Mr. Chavarria’s collaboration with Latino Fan Club lacks commercial appeal, said James Gilchrist, the vice president of Dover Street Market USA and its parent company, Comme des Garçons USA.

“From a wider business perspective, it’s getting harder and harder for creatives like Willy,” he said. “Sure, at the luxury end of the market, there is definitely a lack of creativity, but a big part of what we do is give designers creative freedom.”

If that includes selling expensive underwear that looks as if it has already been worn hard and tossed in the laundry hamper, so much the better.

Advertisement

“We love edgy things,” Mr. Gilchrist said. “It’s who we are.”

Lifestyle

Fashion’s Climate Reckoning Is Just Getting Started

Published

on

Fashion’s Climate Reckoning Is Just Getting Started
From dangerous heat on factory floors to flooding across sourcing hubs, climate risks are catching up with fashion’s supply chains. While new recycling initiatives attempt to scale to address the industry’s waste and emissions problem, easing regulation in Europe raises questions about the path forward heading into 2026.
Continue Reading

Lifestyle

The 2025 Vibe Scooch

Published

on

The 2025 Vibe Scooch

In the 1998 World War II film “Saving Private Ryan,” Tom Hanks played Captain John H. Miller, a citizen-soldier willing to die for his country. In real life, Mr. Hanks spent years championing veterans and raising money for their families. So it was no surprise when West Point announced it would honor him with the Sylvanus Thayer Award, which goes each year to someone embodying the school’s credo, “Duty, Honor, Country.”

Months after the announcement, the award ceremony was canceled. Mr. Hanks, a Democrat who had backed Kamala Harris, has remained silent on the matter. On Truth Social, President Trump did not hold back: “We don’t need destructive, WOKE recipients getting our cherished American awards!!!”

Continue Reading

Lifestyle

How to have the best Sunday in L.A., according to Keiko Agena

Published

on

How to have the best Sunday in L.A., according to Keiko Agena

Keiko Agena likes to create moments of coziness — not just on Sundays, but whenever she possibly can.

“Oh, there’s my rice cooker,” she says when she hears the sound in her Arts District home. “We’re making steel-cut oatmeal in the rice cooker, which by the way, is a game changer. I used to have to baby it and watch it, but now I can just put it in there and forget it.”

Sunday Funday infobox logo with colorful spot illustrations

In Sunday Funday, L.A. people give us a play-by-play of their ideal Sunday around town. Find ideas and inspiration on where to go, what to eat and how to enjoy life on the weekends.

Advertisement

The 52-year-old actor, who played music-loving bestie Lane Kim in the beloved series “Gilmore Girls,” delights in specific comforts like a bowl of warm oats, talking about Enneagram numbers and watching cooking competitions with her husband, Shin Kawasaki.

“It sounds so simple, but I look forward so much to spending time on the couch,” Agena says with a laugh.

It is time that she’s intentional about protecting, especially amid her kaleidoscope of projects. Over the last couple of years, Agena starred in Lloyd Suh’s moving play “The Chinese Lady” in Atlanta, acted in Netflix’s “The Residence,” showcased her artwork in her first feature exhibit, “Hep Tones” (some of her ink and pencil drawings are still for sale), and performed regularly on the L.A. improv circuit. And her work endures with “Gilmore Girls,” which turns 25 this year. Agena narrated the audiobook for “Meet Me at Luke’s,” a guide that draws life lessons from the series, and is featured in the upcoming “Gilmore Girls” documentary “Drink Coffee, Talk Fast.”

She shares with us her perfect Sunday in L.A., which begins before sunrise.

5 a.m.: Morning solitude

Advertisement

I like to be up early-early, like 5 a.m. I like that feeling of everything being quiet. I’ll go into the other room and do Duolingo on my phone. I am a little addicted to social media, so the Duolingo is not just to learn Japanese, but also to keep me from scrolling. Like, if I’m going to do something on my phone, this is better for me. I think my streak is 146. Shin is Japanese, from Toyama. So I’ve been meaning to learn Japanese for a while. For him and his mom.

Then I’ll do [the writing practice] Morning Pages. I don’t know when I learned about Julia Cameron’s book [“The Artist’s Way”] — probably around 2000. I know a lot of people do it handwritten, but I’m a little paranoid about people, like, finding it after I die. So if I have it on my computer and it’s password protected, I can be really honest.

Then a lot of times, I’ll go back to bed. Shin, as a musician, works at night, and so he wakes up a lot later. So I’ll fall back asleep and wake up with him.

9 a.m.: Gimme that bread

I don’t do coffee anymore because it’s a little too tough for my system, but I’ll walk with Shin to Eightfold Coffee in the Arts District. It’s tiny but very chill. Then we’re going to Bliss Bakery inside the Little Tokyo Market Place. We get these tapioca bread balls. If you make any kind of sandwich that you would normally make, but use that bread instead, it ups the game. It’s life-changing. The Little Tokyo Market Place is not fancy or anything, but it has everything that you would want. There’s Korean food. They have a little sushi place in there. You can get premade Korean banchan and hot food in their hot food section. They also have a really good nuts section. It’s just one big table with all these nuts, just piles and piles.

Advertisement

10 a.m.: Nature without leaving the city

We’ll go to Los Angeles State Historic Park near Chinatown. I like that place just because it’s very accessible. Like, they have accessible bathrooms and I’m always checking out whether a place has good bathrooms. We call it Flat Park because it’s a great walk. Like, you’re not really out in nature, but there’s a lot of greenery. You can take your shoes off and at least touch grass for a second.

11:30 a.m.: Lunch and TV cooking shows

One of my favorite salad-sandwich combos is at Cafe Dulce in Little Tokyo. A Korean cheesesteak and a kale salad. That’s always like a — bang, bang — good combo. So we might go there or Aloha Cafe, though it’s not fully open on Sundays. But I love it because I grew up in Hawaii. They have this great Chinese chicken salad and spam musubi and other Hawaiian food that is so good.

We’ll bring home food and watch something. Cooking competition shows are my cream of the crop. My favorite right now is “Tournament of Champions” because it’s blind tasting. To me, that’s the best way to do it. “The Great British Bake Off” is Shin’s favorite. He loves the nature and the accents as much as the actual cooking. He just loves the vibe, the slow pace of the whole thing.

Advertisement

I’m such a TV girl. I love spending time on the couch and eating a meal and watching something that’s appetizing with my favorite person in the world. I’m lucky because I get to do that a lot.

2 p.m.: Browse the aisles

I’ll go to this bookstore called Hennessey + Ingalls. I love art and architecture and design, but you can’t always buy these massive books. But you can go into this bookstore and look at them and it’s always chill.

If I have time, I’ll walk around art supply stores. Artist & Craftsman Supply is a good one. I’ll look at pens, pencils, stickers, tape, washi tape, different kinds of paper, charcoals. In my art, I try to find things that aren’t meant for that particular purpose, like little things in a hardware store that I’ll use it in a different way.

5 p.m.: Downtown L.A. in its glory

Advertisement

We really love to walk the Sixth Street Bridge. It’s architecturally beautiful and they’re building a huge park over there, so we’ll walk around and check it out, like, ‘Which trees are they planting? Can you see?’ We sort of dream about how it’s coming together. But the other beautiful thing about that walk is that if you go at sunset and you walk back toward downtown, it’s just gorgeous. Los Angeles doesn’t have the most majestic skyline, but it’s so picturesque in that moment.

6:30 p.m.: Cornbread and Enneagrams

I’ll head to the Park’s Finest in Echo Park. It’s Filipino barbecue. It’s just so savory and rich and a special hang. Their cornbread is really good. Oh, and the coconut beef, but I’m trying to eat less beef. They have a hot link medley. Oh my gosh, just looking at this menu right now, my mouth is watering. OK, I’ll stop.

One of my favorite things to do is ask friends about their Enneagram number. So the idea of sitting with friends over a good meal and asking them a bunch of personal questions about their childhood and what motivates them and what their parents were like and what their greatest fear is and then figure out what their Enneagram number is? That is a top-tier activity for me.

9 p.m.: Rally for improv

Advertisement

Because I get up so early, if 9 o’clock, I’m ready to go to sleep. But I am obsessed with improv, so on my ideal day, there’d be a show to do. There’s this place called World’s Greatest Improv School in Los Feliz. It’s tiny and they just opened a few years ago, but the vibe there is spectacular.

Then there’s another place where my heart is so invested in now called Outside In Theatre in Highland Park. Tamlyn Tomita and Daniel Blinkoff created it together and not only is the space gorgeous — I mean, they built it from scratch — they have interesting programming there all the time. They’re so supportive of communities that are not seen in mainstream art spaces. It’s my favorite place. Sometimes I’ll find myself in their lobby till 12 o’clock at night. The kind of people I like to hang around are the people that hang out in that space.

11 p.m.: Turn on the ASMR and shut down

I am firmly an ASMR girl and I have been for years. I have to find something to watch that will slow my brain down. Then it’s pretty consistent. I don’t last very long once I turn something on. My eyelids get heavy and it chills me out.

Advertisement
Continue Reading
Advertisement

Trending