When I think back on any Willy Chavarria runway show, the first thing I remember is the models. The Southern California-raised, Mexican-American designer, who has won two CFDA awards for his Chicano-influenced menswear, consistently has among the most vibrant, sexy, and cinematic casting of any shows on the fashion calendar. His modern zoot suits and sporty separates rumble to life on models who are tattooed, sultry, sinewy, cool. It’s a process he looks forward to each season.
“One of my favorite things in the world is casting. It’s one of the biggest challenges, but it’s also the most exciting,” the designer told me in his bustling studio the day before his sophomore Paris Fashion Week presentation, which was to be held at Salle Pleyel, a grand Art Deco concert hall blocks from the Arc de Triomphe. For his spring 2026 show, the brand put out an open call for local unsigned models—predominantly muscular, tattooed men of color—and hundreds of people showed up.
“I mean this is like, duh, but it’s [about] redefining our perceptions of beauty. We see the same sorts of [models] over and over and over. It’s nice to see a range of people, a depth of character,” Chavarria said. “It can be, like, someone who’s really shy, or it can be somebody who’s really strong in who they are—just uniqueness in self-identity is really what I look for most.” He loves a signature walk, people whose gait conveys “their own vibe, like either they have a lot of swag or they’re very stiff.”
He added, “The way I like to do the shows is building characters so that we’re looking at people who have substance and they have some meaning behind them.”
During Friday’s show, 35 street-cast models—all sporting crew cuts, white XXXL tall tees made in partnership with the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), and matching shorts—performed the show’s prelude. One by one, the men formed a vertical line, clasped their hands behind their backs, and knelt on the red-carpeted catwalk as an acoustic version of “California Dreamin’” played: “I got down on my knees / And I pretend to pray.” It was a tribute to the immigrants and citizens who have been detained by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) across the US—including, as of this week, Chavarria’s Fresno County home city of Huron, which served as the namesake of his spring 2026 show. The gesture also evoked disturbing images of the more than 200 Venezuelan migrants whom the Trump administration deported to CECOT, a maximum-security prison in El Salvador, in April.
