The brand made a solid argument for pairing party jorts with tailoring, and more generally dressing to make you happy.
Walking into Willy Chavarria’s Spring/Summer 2027 show was trippy to say the least. Held at the Espace Niemeyer in Paris, the first European commission of Brazilian architect Oscar Niemeyer and former headquarters for the French Communist Party, entering into its Modernist curves felt like a night out in a niche dive bar in an alien universe, where doors were slanted and rooms cave-like in their design.
Inside, natural light was sparse and vibes were high, with members of the Chavarria community, including Tom Ford and Canada Goose Creative Director Haider Ackermann, Maluma, and Lunay all pulling up in support. And it’s this idea of coming together that the designer wanted to explore with his latest collection, titled ‘Comunión’.
“I was very conscious of creating an atmosphere of us being joyous against the darkness,” the Mexican-American designer told Man About Town backstage. How one person expresses that joy is different from another, and this was unpacked on the runway. The opening look saw low-slung trousers worn with a sexy, half-removed shirt with “Willy Smokes” cigarette pack stuffed into the waistband. Because sometimes the happiness in life can come from looking hot, and dancing with your mates, ciggies on quickdraw. Later, a similar energy pulsed through exposed boxers peaking from the waistband of trousers and leather shorts and below the hem of short cut-off denim shorts. And undone short-sleeved shirting felt very 4am in the club appropriate.
Images courtesy of Willy Chavarria
But when it calls for it, Chavarria’s protagonists scrub up well. The brand’s signature, power-shouldered tailoring was firing on all cylinders, although this time in softer green and brown striped patterns, and chilled out with denim. It still felt imposing and assured but less rigid, perhaps more approachable and amplified by a palette of soft pinks, greens, purples, lilacs, seen across knitwear and shirting “reminiscent of places we call home, colours, and prinks [evoking] the comfort of our sanctuaries – fading kitchen walls, hand-stitched monogrammed handkerchiefs folded in drawers, bright florals of pillowcases, curtains and tablecloths,” read the show notes.
Chavarria’s latest strikes a particularly poignant note right now. Across the Milan and Paris shows, menswear has been grounded in a real-life versatility. At Setchu, it was the hardwearing nature of fishing nets that inspired the brand’s SS27 collection – a real-world resilience reflected on the runway. At Prada, a no-fluff streamlined offering was primed for pushing through tough times with your best foot forward. Never one to shy away from the political climate, Chavarria continued to ground his clothes in real life, moving beyond last season’s concert-level blockbuster for an intimate look at how the members of Willy Chavarria-verse come together in increasingly volatile times. It was notably calmer. Suits were broken up, sometimes sexy, sometimes soft, and it all showed how the brand’s world comes together in unity, in comunión.
