Willy Chavarria Named ACLU Ambassador for Immigrants’ and…

Award-winning Mexican-American designer Willy Chavarria has received a prestigious honor from American Civil Liberties Union.

On Wednesday (July 23), the organization named Chavarria artist ambassador of their immigrants’ rights and LGBTQ rights programs. The ACLU noted the designer highlighting politics, race, and sexuality in his fashion pieces and informing his audience of social justice advocacy. Previously, Chavarria collaborated with ACLU on a branded T-shirt for New York Fashion Week, hosted pre-election forum America: Real Talk at Parsons, and assisted in the launch of Creatives for Freedom.

“The ACLU uses every tool they’ve got to fight for the rights of immigrants and the LGBTQ community, and I’m honored to be able to support them in that work,” Chavarria said in a statement. “I’m Mexican American and I grew up in a farming community in California powered by immigrants; all of us exposed to the harsh realities of racial and economic injustice. My work as an artist and designer has been a dialogue between identity and art.”

He continued, “My own Chicano culture, queer culture, and my family’s immigrant roots are intertwined in the fashion that my team and I create and in our activism. I believe in using our creative gifts to defend the rights of humanity and all impacted communities not given the same rights as others for who they are or because of where they’re from. I’m so grateful to join the ACLU in the fight for our rights.”

The designer recently sat down with Complex’s Noah Callahan-Bever for a new episode of Idea Generation, where they discussed his upbringing, early internships and how his fashion tackles social issues.

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